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"Justice Hill said the application to terminate the liquidation...

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Haplo

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20/12/23

20:41

Post #: 71556814
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Originally posted by Haplo ↑

Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison faces wait until autumn to find out fate of Alita Resources push

Directors trying to push mining billionaire Chris Ellison onto the board of failed lithium miner Alita Resources have been told to cool their heels.
Supreme Court judge Jenni Hill has rejected a push by Alita directors Fergus Jockel and Paul O’Farrell for her to hold a hearing on Friday into their application to take the company out of liquidation.
After more than three years of external administration, Alita backers will now have to wait until at least February 29 to see if it can be put under the control of a revamped board featuring Mr Ellison.

The company is potentially well-off given Mr Ellison’s flagship Mineral Resources snapped up its Bald Hill project in a $260 million deal.
But the Singapore-listed company’s future has been confused by the Australian Taxation Office this week lodging a $203m proof of debt for 2022-23 and for the current financial year.

Justice Hill said the application to terminate the liquidation “will not pass go” if the tax office’s claims were found to be valid.
And the judge said the company’s 11,000 shareholders needed to be told about the application to bring Alita out of liquidation.
“I would not be prepared to hear it within three days’ time any time of the year, let alone this time of the year,” she said on Tuesday.
“I hold the very strong view . . . that shareholders be given an opportunity to comment on this.”
She made the ruling after a legal showdown involving lawyers for liquidators from McGrathNicol.

ln the other corner were lawyers for MinRes and for Alita directors Mr Jockel and Mr O’Farrell.
MinRes acquired Bald Hill for a headline cash price of $100m.

The Ellison flagship also agreed to pay about $74m of secured debt, plus a total of $86m to failed Chinese project suitor Austroid and offtake agreement customer Yihe Cleantech Material.
Mr Jockel and Mr O’Farrell’s legal team claimed there was now about $25m left for Alita shareholders given creditors had been paid.
Their barrister Paul Edgar pointed to a letter sent by MinRes to liquidator Rob Kirman at 4.30pm Monday dealing with some issues related to the tax office claims.
He said $25m would be available to shareholders regardless of what happened to the tax office claims.
But McGrathNicol’s lawyer Julie Taylor said the MinRes letter received by her client had not been submitted in evidence to Justice Hill and the liquidators had not yet responded.

She said Alita could be insolvent if it were found to have an outstanding tax debt of more than $200m.
Justice Hill ordered two rounds of legal argument in January ahead of a showdown on February 29.
She said Mr Jockel and Mr O’Farrell should publish newspaper advertisements this Saturday and in early January to tell shareholders about their applications.

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"Justice Hill said the application to terminate the liquidation “will not pass go” if the tax office’s claims were found to be valid."

Let's see how badly MIN Resources wants to keep the Alita shell alive. I wonder if miraculously, funds are made available to directors and thus Alita, to keep the shell solvent until the court case resumes.

A40 Price at posting: 8.2¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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