Billionaire resources baron Chris Wallin splashed $100m to snare assets of failed Bounty Mining
The sorry tale of a failed Queensland coalmining company has come to a surprisingly happy ending.
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HAPPY ENDING
The sorry tale of failed Queensland coalminer Bounty Mining actually has had a surprisingly happy ending.
One of the state’s richest mining barons, billionaire Chris Wallin, used a subsidiary of his privately owned QCoal group to fork out about $100 million earlier this year to acquire the key assets of the group in the Bowen and Laura basins.
Among other things, it means about 170 jobs that were lost at the Cook Colliery near Blackwater just days before Christmas have been restored under the umbrella of Wallin’s Constellation Mining.
Meanwhile, Bounty creditors approved a “deed of company arrangement’’ last week to allow the main entity to continue trading. It will limp along with most of its assets gone but still provide a way for creditors to claw back at least some of their money.
The news is not so good for a bunch of other entities in the Bounty group, which creditors voted to liquidate.
Administrators Jarrod Villani and Bob Hutson, both operatives at restructuring mob KordaMentha, revealed in a report earlier this year that these companies collapsed late last year owing $3.23 million to employees and $9.27 million to unsecured creditors.
That latter group recouped exactly nothing from the wreckage, while another $87.6m went owing to banks and other parties with security over assets.
RESCUE EFFORT
The outlook for Wallin appeared decidedly more bleak last year, when his QCoal lobbed a $90 million refinancing deal which Bounty finally agreed to in early October.
Under the deal, QCoal stumped up $60 million in cash and another $30 million facility to help the group pay down debts and access working capital.
The rescue effort gave Wallin a 6.5 per cent stake in Bounty and two board seats but by mid-December he pulled the pin, informing the company that the facility would not be extended.
Bounty appointed administrators the next day and it sure seemed as if Wallin had done his dough.
But his acquisition of the Bounty assets from the receivers, PWC’s Ben Campbell and Chris Hill, was almost entirely made up of that $90 million, City Beat has learned.
Rewind just two years earlier and Bounty seemed bound for great things after an IPO, which saw it raise $18 million in mid-2018.
The company focused on acquiring distressed assets, snaring the Cook Colliery for $31.5 million as well as other sites from Glencore for an additional $10 million.
But huge losses, falling coals prices, equipment dramas and even two rock falls exacted a grievous toll.
Wallin’s move to capitalise on Bounty’s distress has added to his already sizeable portfolio of assets, which includes the $1.7 billion Byerwen coalmine and the Drake open-cut hard coking and thermal coal mine.
The most recently-available records show QCoal more than doubled its net profit to $120.8 million in the 2019 financial year, up from $51 million.
Wallin, a former chief geologist with the state government who is now worth an estimated $2.6 billion, did not return a call seeking comment on Monday.
ROLLING THE DICE
Seasoned company director and lawyer Susan Forrester has rolled the dice on her next board appointment.
We learned on Monday that Forrester has accepted a job as non-executive chair of Brisbane-based online lottery business Jumbo Interactive.
She replaces the equally seasoned David Barwick, who announced he was stepping down in April but will remain on the board until late next month.
Forrester also currently serves as a director with G8 Education, Viva Leisure Group and IT firm Over The Wire.
She previously spent time as the founding chair of National Veterinary Care, which was acquired by VetPartners in a $250 million deal earlier this year.
Jumbo reported a slight dip in full-year net profit to $25.8m last month despite a 9 per cent spike in revenue to $71 million.
Shares in the company hit a high of nearly $28 late last year but have settled back since then, lasting closing at $13.94.