Brisbane-based Carbon Energy called in administrators in November but it now has money and a new lease on life

Carbon Energy fell in to administration last November but is now back on its feet thanks in part to a $10 million-plus recapitalisation plan.

Kerry Parker illustration by Jonathan Bentley.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

IT looked like game over for Carbon Energy back in November.

The Brisbane-based resources minnow, which reported a $100 million net loss last year, called in administrators after a complex refinancing deal collapsed.

But, in a Lazarus-like return from the dead, Carbon Energy is now back on its feet thanks to a deed of company arrangement and a $10 million-plus recapitalisation plan from its cornerstone investor in Hong Kong.

Creditors met for the third time last week to approve a revised DOCA for the company, which has pinned its hopes for survival on underground coal gasification deals in China and Indonesia.

Share-holders must approve the scheme in a meeting expected in late July, with administrators warning the only alternative is liquidation.

In the meantime, there is serious churn in the company’s senior ranks.

Boss Kerry Parker, who had the misfortune of taking the helm just three months before administrators took over, was supposed to be packing up his office and walking out the door on Wednesday.

Instead, since the DOCA took a bit longer to iron out, the veteran energy and mining industry player has agreed to stay on in a part-time capacity until the shareholder meeting.

Parker told City Beat yesterday he had endured “a hectic few months’’ (to put it mildly) and didn’t have another gig lined up yet.

But he said Carbon Energy now had 18 months to two years of operating cash, giving it the best shot possible at survival.

Also heading for the exits in late July is Catherine Costello, who acts as both CFO and company secretary.

Like now-defunct Linc Energy, Carbon Energy suffered a body blow when the Queens-land Govern-ment banned all underground coal gasification projects in April last year because of well-founded pollution fears.

That move forced the firm to look for licensing deals abroad for its “keyseam’’ technology, which it maintains is environ-mentally safe.

By contrast, Linc has left a shocking toxic legacy near Chinchilla, where more than 175sq km of farm-land has been contaminated.

Linc founder Peter Bond and other senior executives are now in court fighting charges the company failed to comply with the Environmental Protection Act.

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

IRONY, it seems, knows no bounds.

Brisbane Marketing shelled out the big bucks for head hunters to find a new CEO over the past few months.

More than 90 hopefuls from across Australia and the world threw their hats in the ring.

It turns out he was hiding in plain sight all along.

Chief operating officer Brett Fraser will step in to the top role on July 3 when current boss John Aitken departs after almost a decade.

Fraser came aboard the city’s economic development body in January last year. Before that he toiled for coal miner Vale and the city’s Australia TradeCoast.

Aitken joined the outfit in 2008 after a career in events management and stabilised the tourism and investment body following a period of turmoil.

Aitken, who revealed his plans to depart last November, did not return a call yesterday. Fraser could not be reached.

GETTING UGLY

BRACE yourself for civil disobedience if the Adani board finally signs off on the giant Carmichael mine following the State Government’s painful contortions over royalties.

Greenie activists with Galilee Blockade have put out the call via Twitter for volunteers to offer up trucks, buses and other big vehicles.

The logical use of all that machinery, of course, would be to transport protesters, occupy the site and block access. Folks, this is going to get ugly.