Steve Bizzell’s Bizzell Capital Partners in another tussle with ATO

One of the state’s coal-seam gas pioneers, who is also an ex-Queensland Treasury Corp director, is having a tussle with the taxman - and not for the first time.

Stephen Bizzell, whose Bizzell Capital Partners is embroiled in an ATO dispute.

ATO ROUND 5

STEVE Bizzell, one of Queensland’s coal-seam gas pioneers and a keen cyclist, is having a tussle with the taxman, again.

The Australian Taxation Office has filed a Federal Court winding-up application against the entrepreneur’s private advisory business Bizzell Capital Partners, based at Waterfront Place overlooking Brisbane’s swanky Eagle St eateries.

Bizzell Capital Partners is accused of failing to have paid $544,847.85 owing to the taxman, including amounts due under a running balance account deficit due in October last year, income tax from previous years and penalties.

It’s the fifth time since 2012 that the taxman has launched winding up proceedings against Bizzell Capital Partners. Five times. John Farnham’s had about that many comeback tours.

No defence has been filed and attempts to obtain comment from Bizzell, a 51-year-old former Queensland Treasury Corporation director, were unsuccessful.

Previously, Bizzell Capital Partners have resolved ATO disputes. Such as Bizzell in 2015 organising a repayment plan for a $918,000 lawsuit.

It’s a far cry from 2010, when Bizzell, a co-founder of CSG outfit Arrow Energy, earned an estimated $18 million when Shell bought it in 2010. Still, the Brisbane Grammar old boy can probably relax in his riverfront home in Brisbane’s Yeronga.

OUT OF THE AVALANCHE

Outdoor equipment seller Mountain Designs, which last year pulled off one of Earth’s swiftest shutdowns of a retail chain without going bust, is out marketing again.

A teaser email to its “Alliance Club” members this week whispered “Mountain Designs is back” with a “new range coming soon”.

Mountain Designs started in 1975 but between January and February 2018, in four rapid culls, all 39 stores were closed, costing more than 150 jobs. The brand and intellectual property were then picked up by Spotlight Group, which also owns outdoor goods seller Anaconda.

BAD BIOTECH BLOOD

A bomb-throwing corporate stoush has broken out about the remnants of Queensland biotechnology hopeful Factor Therapeutics.

Biotechnology is risky and when Factor’s wound-healing project failed in November, shares crumbled as low as 0.15c. Then some intriguing investors snaffled hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire a 19.44 per cent stake in the Brisbane biotech. The main investor is Pura Vida Energy, an ASX-listed explorer of oil in Africa of all things.

Pura and other new investors want to vote out Factor directors Cherrell Hirst, John Michailidis, and Tim Hughes, a former economics columnist for The Courier-Mail. Share prices have crumbled, the investors argue.

“The board should be accountable for this (trial) failure and should be refreshed,” the shareholders said. Their notice argued the Factor directors were not the right people to take the company forward.

Their two replacement board nominees are Bruce Lane and David Sanders, both Pura directors. Factor’s responds that it seems Pura and another shareholder “are opportunists that have no plans for your company other than to obtain board control without making an offer”.

WHERE’S THE MONEY GO?

Then Factor goes for a throat punch.

Factor points out Pura Vida’s stock was suspended for 10 months last year and the company “spends a large proportion of its cash on director costs, administration and corporate costs rather than on exploration and evaluation”.

That’s in same documentation where Factor points out its directors have not taken any remuneration since the trial failure.

So where’s the treasure at Factor now? Well, its last cash flow statement predicts a balance of $541,000 at March’s end, plus a potential $1.2 million research-and-development tax refund by May. Factor’s current board says it’s also assessing other technology.