Cheers for the reply McDongle, really interesting reading that. My theory was that they may be issuing this new debt to redeem the ASBPA's and B's as per your scenario above. Although $400m is not enough to take out the $550m at face and the timing is slightly off.
Then there is the question.. why are the PA's and PB's currently trading at such a discount to face? I have been trying to get my head around that one without much luck!