Ben Campbell.
The good news is that the two electricity generators at Callide in south east Queensland that were disabled May 2021 and October 2022 could be back online next month.
The bad news is that the $50 million-odd remaining in the kitty of IG Power (Callide) Pty Ltd (IGPC) will be insufficient to meet the next cash call to be issued to IGPC by Callide Energy Pty Ltd (CEPL), IGPC’s joint venture partner in the Callide C power station at Biloela and an entity wholly owned by the Queensland State government through CS Energy Limited (CSEL).
As operator and manager of the generators and associated businesses, CEPL issues a monthly cash call to IGPC for the funds it needs to keep the operations afloat while the generating units are brought back on line.
During an application in the Federal Court yesterday Justice Roger Derrington heard that the next cash call from CEPL will be in the vicinity of $70 million and IGPC’s administrators, FTI Consulting’s John Park and Ben Campbell, were concerned to limit their personal liability for future debts in circumstances where there’s less than that sum available to them and their investigations as to who might be responsible for the failures and therefore subject to a claim are yet to be completed.
Park and Campbell were first appointed as special purpose administrators (SPAs) by order of the Federal Court on January 29, 2024, an order that specified that they were not indemnified out of the assets of IGPC.
The application yesterday to limit their personal liability was brought in circumstances where orders had been made previously granting such protections to Park and Campbell’s predecessors, who resigned last month in the face of concerted pressure brought by major shareholders wanting them removed.
Deloitte pair Grant Sparks and Richard Hughes earned the ire of certain shareholder creditors by not progressing their investigations fast enough, and only averted a judicial referral to the regulator by agreeing to retire and pay their opponents’ costs on the indemnity basis and without recourse to the assets of IGPC and IG Energy Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd.
Park and Campbell then became the general purpose administrators (GPAs) of IGPC and three related entities, IG Energy Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, IG Power Holdings Ltd and IG Power Marketing Pty Ltd.
The court also heard that Park and Campbell require more time to determine whether or not they should disown the leases in respect of the land on which the Callide facility operates and agreed to waive the requirement for them to convene a first meeting of creditors, given Sparks and Hughes had already done so and replicating it would impose an unnecessary expense. The kitty may be bare but the good news keeps coming.
Further reading:
Deloitte duo capitulate on Callide
Deloitte duo stumble again in Callide litigation
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