Nathan Tinkler on his second day at NSW’s Supreme Court.
Photo: Sasha Woolley
Nathan Tinkler believed a disgruntled ex-employee leaked commercially sensitive details of $700 million in loans from hedge fund Farallon Capital and others to the media, as concerns about his financial position intensified in November last year.
The revelations – which can be reported after a suppression order was partially lifted following a last minute settlement on Wednesday – is the latest in a spate of moves by the mining entrepreneur to tightly guard information about his solvency.
There was widespread reporting that Mr Tinkler’s loan – which was held against his 19.4 per cent stake in Whitehaven – could be called in after the value of his Whitehaven shares collapsed.
On Wednesday Whitehaven shares closed at their lowest point since May 2009, down 4¢ to $2.28.
The struggling mining entrepreneur’s solvency has been a matter of intense speculation for the past year, but court documents which can now be reported show he was so concerned about media speculation he sought a super injunction to prevent Fairfax media reporting details of his finances, some of which were already public.
The revelation that he took this unprecedented and extraordinary step to suppress the media from reporting on his financial affairs comes less than a week after he was forced to front court over a separate failed company and amid growing speculation about his liabilities.
Mr Tinkler relocated to Singapore last year in an attempt to escape the glare of the Australian media.
Since then a number of his companies have come close to going under, but a last-minute deal has always been nutted out.
The once rotund coal baron failed to obtain financing for a $5.25 billion takeover proposal for Whitehaven shortly after he had signed a deal with another coal company, Blackwood Corporation, to buy $28.4 million worth of shares last May. And then, in November, he lost a very public attempt to spill the board of Whitehaven, which has been plagued by operational issues at its coal mines and short selling on the back of dramas with its key shareholder.
Mr Tinkler’s luck executing last minute deals ran out with Blackwood after it filed an application to wind up his private vehicle Mulsanne Resources, which was placed in the hands of liquidators in November.
There has been ongoing speculation about Mr Tinkler’s financial position, after he took on huge levels of debt before the coal market turned in the middle of last year.
However only a handful of Mr Tinkler’s key lieutenants knew the details of the Farallon loans, one or more of whom Mr Tinkler now thinks leaked the details to Fairfax.
He obtained a super injunction to prevent Fairfax Media, publisher of The Australian Financial Review, printing details of the Farallon loan and demanded Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paddy Manning reveal his sources. The suppression order was partially lifted on Wednesday in Melbourne’s Supreme Court.
The loan was between Aston Resources, which merged with Whitehaven before the failed takeover attempt, Mr Tinkler and Farrallon.
In documents tendered before court in the Blackwood hearing last week, it was revealed Ray Zage, the managing director of Farallon subsidiary, Singapore-based Noonday Asset Management was in discussions with Mr Tinkler about funding the Blackwood deal, but ultimately was not prepared to take on the risk.
In court last week Mr Tinkler said he went to Noonday last year to help finance the Blackwood proposal, but was told no. “They had a lot on at the time and were cautious on the coal market,” he said. “They said they couldn’t look at it at the time.”
It also emerged the majority of Mr Tinkler’s assets were hidden in a family trust worth $1.4 billion, which he claimed held $600 million worth of liabilities.
Mr Tinkler is embroiled in a lawsuit with the former head of Aston Resources, Hamish Collins, over unpaid entitlements and is thought to have walked a number of employees out of the business last October after accusing them of leaking information to the media. Other Tinkler Group debts are thought to be held mostly against property.
This story first appeared on The Australian Financial Review.
Nathan Tinkler blamed ex-employee for leak of Farallon Capital loan details
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét