CORRECTED - UPDATE 3-Premier Foods to pay lenders for stress test delay

(Corrects quote in last paragraph to read "At least the balance sheet is now getting focus")

* To pay lending banks 4.9 mln pounds to delay covenant test

* Scraps 2008 interim dividend

* In continuing discussions with lenders

* Shares fall by as much as 18 percent

* Four-month to end-Oct sales up 9 percent

By Matthew Scuffham

LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest food manufacturer Premier Foods (PFD.L) said on Tuesday it is paying its lenders a fee of 4.9 million pounds ($7.31 million) to postpone a key stress test of its bank loans.

The covenant test, which was due at the end of the year but will now take place three months later, comes as the company grapples with a 1.8 billion pound debt pile.

The maker of Hovis bread, Mr Kipling cakes, and Branston pickle also said it had decided not to pay the 2.2 pence per share interim dividend it announced to shareholders alongside its first-half results at the end of August.

Premier said it is reviewing a range of options to accelerate the reduction of its debt, which was built up as a result of the acquisitions of Campbell Soup Co's UK and Irish operations in 2006, and bakery group RHM the following year.

As part of the review, the group said it had entered into discussions with its lending banks, which it expects to continue into the first quarter of 2009.

"With the review ongoing, Premier and its lending banks have agreed that it would be appropriate to defer the date of the next covenant test from Dec 31 2008 to March 31, 2009," the company said in a statement.

However, Chief Executive Robert Schofield said Premier would have met its covenant test in December and is confident of passing the test next March. He said the decision to delay the test was taken following guidance from both the lending banks and Premier's advisers, Goldman Sachs.

"We have said all along that we would have passed that test and we're still of that view now. Our plans show that we will pass the test in March too," Schofield told reporters on a conference call.

Premier said it is reviewing a range of options to accelerate the reduction of its debt "in order to establish a more appropriate long-term capital structure given the fundamental change in the credit markets".