KordaMentha extracts third indemnity increase

If there’s a funder that’s ever provided more for administrators trading on a business than the amount pledged to indemnify OneSteel Manufacturing’s appointees (OSM), iNO would like to know.

$768 million. That’s the current funding commitment KordaMentha partners and OSM appointees Lara Wiggins, Mark Mentha, Sebastian Hams and Michael Korda have extracted from the South Australian and Federal Labor governments, as disclosed in an updated Declaration of Independence, Relevant Relevant Relationships and Indemnities (DIRRI) filed with ASIC last week.

Not bad going, particularly when you consider that when the VAs agreed to take on the appointment some 13 months ago they did so with just $400 million to lubricate the mechanics of administration and asset sale, despite this being same firm that sold the same package of assets out of administration in 2016.

Since then they’ve entered into three deeds of variation, leading to a near doubling of the amount of taxpayer-backed funding governments have been happy to commit and with a sale of OSM’s Whyalla Steelworks and related assets still some way off, who’d bet the KordaMentha quad can’t push it past $1 billion?

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