SO4 (ASX) Ann: Appointment of Voluntary Administrators

Originally posted by TerribleTadpole: ↑

"KPMG helps management to stabilise the business, reorganise borrowings, enhance profitability and build a platform for sustainable growth."

Think of KPMG as being like the vet. Concerned owners will take their sick/injured animal to the vet to have it healed if possible, and put down humanely otherwise. The staff at the vet are realists, but also will do everything in their power to heal their patient.

Think of Korda Mentha as being like the abbattoir. Creditors will take their sick/injured animal to the vet to have it slaughtered and butchered for whatever meat they can get off it. The staff at the abbattoir have no interest in the wellbeing of the animal or its owners. They have one job to do and will do it with the same level of emotion you would expect from the average reptile.

I've seen Korda Mentha at work from close quarters at Arrium where I got caught, and at Virgin Airlines where I escaped. They are completely ruthless. They also have absolutely no duty toward shareholders, only toward the creditors. The creditors only want their money. Any contact shareholders attempt to make with Korda Mentha will be bluntly deflected. The people now in control of SO4 have absolutely no interest in the business as an operation, only as an asset to be liquidated.

The steelworks at Wyalla still runs, but Arrium doesn't own it. Korda Mentha stripped it out of the company and sold it, as they did with every other asset. There is still an airline in Australia that operates under the name of Virgin, but Virgin Australia Group doesn't own it. Korda Mentha stripped out all the assets and sold them for what they could get. In each case the shareholders received only a letter from Korda Mentha stating that they could claim a 100% capital loss on their shares for tax purposes.

I would suggest that any mental energy you are currently putting into optimism/hope should be directed towards recovery and learning the lessons.

Expand

Well there is a list of who gets paid first when a biz winds up. Secured creditors (banks) are first, then non-secured creditors, then equity holders. Sometimes it makes more sense to restructure debts or raise money if the company has some hope of being viable in the near future (e.g. GCY). If something is royally stuffed, assets just get liquidated. These are general comments only and I'm not an expert in this field.