Tinkler to call Singapore home: reports

Embattled mining tycoon Nathan Tinkler is reportedly moving to Singapore to set up a new company.

According to reports published in Fairfax media today, the debt-ridden businessman is continuing his efforts to sell his multi-million-dollar assets in Australia while tightening his business grip in the tax haven of Singapore.

Reports also claim Mr Tinkler has started a major restructure of his existing business in Singapore by axing the local director of his Bentley Resources and taking control as sole director and shareholder.

Singaporean company records show Mr Tinkler began the restructure in late April, less than a fortnight after liquidators of his failed Australian company, Mulsanne Resources, said they planned to bring legal action against him for insolvent trading.

Photos: Inside Tinkler’s lavish mansion that’s now on the market

Mr Tinkler has also given up nearly half of his stake in Whitehaven Coal Ltd for about $285 million to pay down debt to a U.S. hedge fund, easing concern about a forced selldown that had weighed on the miner’s value.

The U.S. fund, Farallon Capital Management picked up a 9.9 percent stake from Tinkler and entities associated with him, taking its holding in Whitehaven to 16.6 percent, it said in a shareholding notice to the Australian stock exchange.

Farallon is buying the shares at a minimum of AS$2.96 each, valuing the deal at around $300 million. The fund may pay an additional amount if the shares trade higher between January and March next year.

Earlier this month, Mr Tinkler also made another desperate manoeuvre to defend his crumbling coal empire.

He signed an agreement to clear his debt to junior miner Blackwood Corporation  under which, for $12 million, the young former billionaire can wipe clean his $28.4 million debt to Blackwood Corporation.

The arrangement would leave Mr Tinkler with no shares in Blackwood, ending uncertainty over ownership of the stake.

It is just an agreement, however, with no money paid yet and Blackwood still holding on to its threat to continue legal action against Mr Tinkler and directors of his company, Mulsanne Resources.

A spokesman for Blackwood described the deal as “a road map to settlement”.

Blackwood forced Mulsanne Resources into liquidation in 2012 after Mulsanne failed to pay for the share placement.

The company has now suspended legal action, comprising an application to freeze Mr Tinkler’s assets and insolvent trading charges, until a June 30 payment deadline.

Tinkler to call Singapore home: reports