Receivers appointed to Evans & Tate today hope to sell the Margaret River winery and its assets within eight to 10 weeks.
Receivers appointed to Evans & Tate today hope to sell the Margaret River winery and its assets within eight to 10 weeks.
E&T's largest creditor, the ANZ Banking Group Ltd, today appointed receiver McGrathNicol after E&T's board placed the winery in to voluntary administration on Monday night.
The move comes more than two years after E&T appointed the turnaround arm of insolvency group KordaMentha to claw back its ballooning debt.
E&T shares, which were placed in a trading halt on Friday, were suspended from trading today.
Its shares last traded at 13 cents. E&T shares traded as high as $1.70 in October 2001 following a succesful float of the business in December 1999.
In a statement released today McGrathNicol said E&T maintained wine interests in the south east of Australia and Victoria's Yarra Valley, employed about 160 people and had annual revenue of $75 million.
E&T has spent the past two years selling off the bulk of its east coast assets it acquired through the $150 million merger with Cranswick Premium Wines in 2003.
It is understood E&T's winery interests on the eastern seaboard are largely lease-back arrangements.
McGrathNicol said its appointment came after it became apparent that Peter Fogarty's Pendulum Capital Pty Ltd and McWilliam's Wines Pty Ltd would not be able to satisfy a number of conditions precedent to a restructure agreement, which they struck with ANZ on July 27.
In a statement released by E&T today, the winery said Pendulum and McWilliams had pulled out of a restructure agreement following due diligence.
E&T said Pendulum and McWilliam's were concerned about several key supply arrangements and grower contracts.
Jack Bendat-linked Ferngrove Vineyards Ltd pulled its merger proposal for E&T late last month following its due dilligence work.
At the time Ferngrove said it had identified matters which it was unaware at the time of making its offer and it could not proceed without "seriously jeopardising" its existing shareholders' "healthy current position".
E&T also said today that it had received correspondence from a representative of more than 25 per cent of Convertible Noteholders which had said the group was unwilling to support the Pendulum and McWilliam's restructure agreement.
The noteholders are owed $20 million and were due to be repayed in October.
McGrathNichol's media release is pasted below:
Peter Anderson, Shaun Fraser and Andrew Birch of McGrathNicol have today been appointed
receivers and managers of Evans & Tate Limited ("Evans & Tate") and its subsidiaries by the
Group's banker Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited.
The appointment occurred in response to the decision of the Evans & Tate Board to place the group in
voluntary administration. Trading in the company's securities was suspended on
Friday 17 August 2007.
Evans & Tate is a long established Margaret River based wine producer which also has wine
interests in south east Australia and Victoria's Yarra Valley. It employs approximately 160
people and has annual revenues of approximately $75 million.
The appointment of receivers and managers follows unsuccessful attempts by the Evans &
Tate Board over an extended period of time to restructure the business.
The most recent restructuring initiative involving Pendulum Capital and McWilliams dissolved last Friday when
it became apparent that a number of conditions precedent to the deal would not be satisfied.
The Board appointed voluntary administrators on 20 August 2007.
Mr Anderson advised that McGrathNicol has taken control of the assets and operations of the Evans & Tate group and that he and his team would be working together with the group's employees to ensure that customer needs continued to be met whilst a buyer for the business is found.
"Evans and Tate owns quality assets including highly respected and strongly supported brands. The level of interest in acquiring those assets is very high and as such I am confident that a going concern sale of the assets and business of Evans & Tate will be achieved in the near future. We will be commencing the sale process immediately" said Mr Anderson.
"We look forward to continued support from Evans & Tate's customers, employees and suppliers whilst we implement the necessary sale process" he said.
