It was a case of the familiar and the faceless at yesterday's meeting of creditors owed over $1 billion by Rick Stowe's failed Collie coal and power producer Griffin Coal.
It was a case of the familiar and the faceless at yesterday's meeting of creditors owed over $1 billion by Rick Stowe's failed Collie coal and power producer Griffin Coal.
Around 150 creditors and observers packed the Sheraton Hotel's Grand Ballroom to hear KordaMentha administrators dissect the $1 billion-plus litany of debt and to appoint a committee of creditors to consider how to save or sell the business.
Not surprisingly, given the extent Griffin Coal's debts and its complex links with the rest of the Stowe-owned group, the list of candidates to join the committee was long.
At least 26 creditors nominated representatives for the committee, almost three times the number preferred by KordaMentha partner Brian McMaster.
Lobbyist Julian Grill, who attended the meeting alongside former State Labor MP Norm Marlborough, was among those owed money by the group and nominated former Griffin executive Frederick Suhren to represent his Grill Consulting business on the creditors committee.
But following an objection from the floor and an evenly split show of hands, Mr McMaster used his casting vote to defeat the election of Mr Suhren.
Creditors then voted to prevent representatives of several Stowe-controlled entities, including his primary Australian holding company Devereaux Holdings, from joining the committee.
Arch coal supplier Wesfarmers Premier Coal withdrew its nomination before the vote, following an objection by local union boss Gary Wood, from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
Local mining identity Roderick Smith, who spearheaded the original Windimurra vanadium mine development, was another surprise nominee.
Now based in London, where he acts as a mining consultant, Mr Smith told WA Business News he had been asked to attend on behalf of one of the overseas bondholders who are jointly owed $538 million by Griffin.
Mr Smith was one of 23 nominees ultimately elected to the committee, joining representatives of the mysterious overseas bond investors, trade creditors, suppliers and unions.
Five mostly US-based investment groups, which jointly speak for around 60 per cent of Griffin's outstanding bonds, have formed a loose working group in response to Griffin's collapse and also won committee representation.
The five comprise Clearwater Capital, Thornburg Investments, Trust Company of the West, Evergreen Investments, and Teachers Insurance & Annuity.
A number of other bondholders also won representation, including major Fortescue Metals Group investor Harbinger Capital's vulture fund, Credit Distressed Blueline Master Fund.
Other high profile groups to be elected to the committee included Perdaman Chemicals & Fertilisers, which has a 25 year coal supply deal with Griffin, rail freight group Australian Western Railroad, Caltex Australia, Mitsui, Komatsu, the Australian Tax Office, IHI Engineering, Royal Equipment, Bunbury Drilling, and TiWest.
Griffin's trade creditors have to date made claims totalling $44 million.
Coal workers will be represented on the committee by the CFMEU and AMWU.
After the meeting, Mr Wood accused Griffin of "unscrupulous" behaviour given around $750,000 in superannuation and $120,000 in salary sacrifice entitlements had not been paid up by the company before its collapse.
Mr Wood also said Verve Energy would be to blame for any miners who lost their jobs if it ultimately failed to agree on the terms of a proposed $4 million prepayment for coal due to be delivered to it by Griffin.
Mr McMaster earlier told reporters that the deal, aimed at giving Griffin extra breathing space, was unlikely to proceed because of some of the conditions being demanded by Verve relating to requirements to keep a set level of coal reserves uncovered in the pit at all times.
"We haven't been able to settle on terms and conditions," Mr McMaster said of the $4 million lifeline. "If we don't do so in the next day or so, we'll leave them where they are."
However, Mr McMaster said the coal business was cashflow positive, and that he could turn to more conventional financiers for interim funding if necessary.
Mr McMaster said he expected it would take up to nine months to resolve Griffin's debt problems, either by way of a restructure or sale of its assets.