As was recently reported by SiN, liquidator David Iannuzzi is girding his loins for a showdown next year with the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) but in the meantime the Veritas Advisory principal continues to throw himself into the rough and tumble of winning work. Obviously that means you win some and you lose some and Iannuzzi has certainly won his share in the past month, picking up about a dozen…
Whilst it might seem difficult to envisage how the appearance of independence can be maintained by insolvency practitioners acting as both surgeon and undertaker, Justice Paul McKerracher illuminates the way to envisagement. In Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Diploma Group Limited (No 5) [2017] FCA 1147 his honour last week granted leave to David Hodgson and Andrew Hewitt to enable the Grant Thornton partners to appoint themselves as administrators of…
What would Australia’s great bush bard make of the press pack mayhem outside and inside the Banjo Patterson room on Level three of Sydney’s Marriott Hotel yesterday? Perhaps the great man might want a quiet word with Ten Network Holding’s administrator Mark Korda – a man known more for his numerical eloquence – and ask him how a bloody accountant can have cameramen and women, radio…
Many will have seen the somewhat depressing numbers in respective of formal insolvency appointments released by ASIC this week. As that report coincided with SiN being directed by one practitioner to take note of a particular DIRRI issued by rivals, it got us to thinking whether in the desperate clamour for work, the renewed focus on independence brought about by KordaMentha’s pre-appointment activities at the…
The hearing into the adequacy of the disclosures contained in KordaMentha’s much-maligned report to the creditors of TEN Network Holdings (TNH) was always going to be run with extreme diligence by Supreme Court Justice Ashley Black. This is not only because SiN suspects that Justice Black conducts every hearing with extreme diligence but because TNH creditors are scheduled to vote on a momentous resolution to…
Mark Korda is probably less than delighted that the recent triumph his co-owned firm engineered via the sale of Arrium has been largely neutered, obscured and in terms of publicity trounced by the TEN Network Holdings (TEN) imbroglio but it didn’t show yesterday, even when the prickly and provocative John Atanaskovic made a seemingly amicable overture. Of course in a room packed with lawyers and journalists, it pays to keep fists…
First it was the DIRRI. Then the supplementary DIRRI. And now it’s the report to creditors. When it comes to TEN Network Holdings, voluntary administrators KordaMentha can scarcely issue a document that isn’t analysed by TEN’s unsuccessful bidders in the hope that some perceived misstep, omission or flaw will deliver the opportunity they need to reverse the consequences of their own miscalculation. This week we’ve seen…
A critical element of the Network TEN – CBS transaction being engineered by voluntary administrators (VAs) KordaMentha looks set to be challenged, a court heard this week. On Thursday, barrister Ian Jackman told Justice Brigitte Markovic that “other parties are likely to appear and may well oppose” the application by the VAs to transfer shares controlled by TEN’s three billionaire shareholders to the American entertainment behemoth. Might two of the three – Lachlan Murdoch and…
It’s a big few days coming up for KordaMentha with some rapid leaps in the Ten administration possible following receiver PPB’s sale of the network to CBS and the official handover of Arrium taking place at week’s end. This afternoon lawyers for Mark Korda, Jenny Nettleton and Jarrod Villani are due to front the Federal Court in Sydney seeking approval to pay out the secured creditors of the Ten…
Here’s an unholy shemozzle for the Federal Court to exorcise. Two banks, each with multi-million dollar exposures to separate companies within the same group. Four appointees, installed at some point as either receivers or liquidators of various companies within said group. Add the main shareholder and director, who’s defending one bank’s attempts to bankrupt him. Toss in ASIC. Season with allegations that receivers took possession…