FTI yet to consent to Parbery as SPL

FTI Consulting's Quentin Olde 

AN application to appoint PPB Advisory's Steve Parbery special purpose liquidator (SPL) of Queensland Nickel (QN) has been lodged in the Federal Court but the stricken nickel firm's general purpose liquidators (GPLs) are yet to declare whether they will consent to or contest the move.

Quentin Olde, one of four FTI Consulting partners formerly appointed GPLs to QN on April 27 told SiN yesterday that the company's creditors are also undecided.

"We had a meeting with the committee yesterday (Tuesday) and we're trying to understand their views and concerns and are continuing to work with the applicants to better understand the basis for the application and the extent of the role of the SPL," Olde said.

Creditors are understood to have expressed doubts about the need for an SPL. Nor is it rocket science to conclude that FTI might be underwhelmed with the prospect of PPB nicking its gig. The application's originating process seeks orders which include preventing the GPLs from doing anything specified as a designated, SPL task without first obtaining written consent.

That includes pursuing claims, conducting public examinations, commencing legal proceedings and conducting investigations into any of the matters outlined in the application's supporting affidavit, authored by King & Wood Mallesons' insolvency gun, David Cowling.

Further, FTI's gang of four - Olde, John Park, Stefan Dopking and Kelly-Anne Trenfield - reject any suggestion that they have a conflict of interest with their appointor, which is the usual justification for installing an SPL.

Yet unanswered is the question of why the SPL applicants - The Department of Employment (DoE) and the Commissioner of Taxation (CoT) - won't fund the GPLs.

Octaviar: $514 million proof of debt up for appeal

RSM's David Kerr has $514 million reasons
to smile

OCTAVIAR's general purpose liquidators Kate Barnett and Bill Fletcher were served a major setback in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday.

In handing down his judgement Justice Paul Brereton ruled that RSM's David Kerr - currently special purpose liquidator of Octaviar Limited (OL) - can apply to extend his powers, paving the way for an appeal of Barnett and Fletcher's rejection in April 2014 of a $514 million proof of debt (PoD).

The PoD was lodged on April 11, 2011 by OL's former receiver, Steve Parbery of PPB. The judge said that if Kerr were to appeal then the Bentleys pair - as general purpose liquidators of OL and its subsidiary Octaviar Administration (OA) - would be in an untenable position.

"It is plain enough that, in respect of any such appeal, the liquidators would be in a position of conflict - as liquidators of the appellant OCV (OL) prosecuting the appeal, and as liquidators of the respondent OA opposing it," Justice Brereton said.

The judge also raised the prospect that Barnet and Fletcher may have engineered their potential disqualification as liquidators of OL when they settled their long running litigation with Fortress Credit Corporation in May this year.

"The issue arises because the general purpose liquidators of OCV (OL) are, in their capacity as liquidators of OA, "officers" of OA, and it appears possible, although it is not entirely clear, that the settlement of the OA/Fortress proceedings involves OA taking an assignment from Fortress of security held by Fortress over the assets of OCV (OL).

"If so, the liquidators qua liquidators of OA may thus have become officers of a "secured party" of OCV (OL), so as arguably to be disqualified from acting as liquidators of OCV (OL) by operation of Corporations Act, s 532(2)(c)(ii).

"It suffices to accept that there is a presently unresolved and not insignificant possibility that the general purpose liquidators may be disqualified from continuing to act as liquidators of OCV (OL)," the judge concluded.

Fees continue to flow for Octaviar's appointees and advisors

Legal fees and costs orders are revealed
in Octaviar's latest accounts

THE latest accounts for Octaviar Administration (OA) show that Bill Fletcher and Kate Barnett earned almost $370,000.00 in fees in the past six months, taking total remuneration since they were appointed to $23.125 million.

The Bentleys' pair were installed as liquidators of OA and Octaviar Limited (OL) in September 2009 after the Public Trustee of Queensland, acting on behalf of creditors, removed Deloitte's John Greig and Nicholas Harwood.

By December 2012 Fletcher and Barnett had generated $15.7 million in fees on the OA side. Since then they've charged an additional $7.425 million for doling out dividends and, until this year, flinging cash from OA's bulging treasury accounts at a range of litigious stratagems.

However with the liquidation of OA and OL forecast to end in June 2016 it appears that they've drawn a line under the legal actions, including their costly pursuit of US finance house Fortress Credit Corporation. 

In May this year - at around the time that OL's special purpose liquidator reached a $12.35 million settlement with Fortress - Fletcher and Barnett settled their disputes. Though the precise terms have yet to be prised out, SiN understands OA's settlement required payment of Fortress's legal costs. In this respect a reference in the accounts to $2.35 million paid to the trust account of Fortress's solicitors, Baker & McKenzie, may be instructive.

Lehman creditors encouraged to share the pain

Lehman Borthers Australia
liquidator Marcus Ayres.
Photo courtesy PPB Advisory

YOU know you’re handling a complex liquidation when the best option for satisfying creditors’ claims is one that delivers equality of unhappiness for all.

Lehman Brothers Australia (LBA) is such a liquidation. Since their appointment in 2009 PPB Advisory’s Marcus Ayres and Steve Parbery have dealt with complex financial instruments backed by tainted mortgage pools; multi-jurisdictional legal wrangles; hardball insurance syndicates and class actions mounted by plaintiffs scarred when the aforementioned derivatives exploded.

On Wednesday the liquidators faced LBA creditors assembled at the Bligh Street offices of Clayton Utz to discuss their latest report.