JUICY fees aside, insolvency firm Ferrier Hodgson must be ruing the day it agreed to sign on as administrator to the collapsed heart pump maker, Ventracor.
It must have seemed such an easy brief at the time: help offload the cash-strapped company's assets to an already identified buyer, and return the funds to creditors.
Who would have thought that the prospective buyer, the US-based Siqro, would pull out of the $10m sale after the deal had been approved by creditors?
But after receiving a call from representatives of Siqro at the weekend, advising that its financial backers had developed cold feet, Ferrier's Steve Sherman appears to have little choice other than closing Ventracor's Sydney-based operations and placing the once-lauded company into liquidation.
That would likely open the door for the intrepid Ventracor Shareholders Group to relaunch its campaign to recapitalise the company, install a new board and management team, and ensure the business remains in Australia.
A month ago, Sherman advised creditors to vote against the shareholder's rescue proposal, arguing that the Siqro deal provided greater certainty. Yesterday, he was asking representatives for the shareholders whether they could come up with bridging finance by the close of business, while Siqro's parent company, Orqis Medical Corporation, was apparently filing for bankruptcy in the US.
VCR Price at posting:
8.3¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
