Queensland Nickel: Clive Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink ‘doesn’t want receivers’

UPDATE: Clive Palmer’s nephew has been involved in some heated exchanges under cross examination in court and has given a blunt warning for all those owed money by Queensland Nickel.

QLD_CM_NEWS_PALMER_08DEC15

CLIVE Palmer’s companies can just “walk away” from “tens of millions of dollars” worth of Queensland Nickel’s debts, leaving them free to restart the Townsville refinery under a new corporate manager, his nephew has told a Brisbane court.

In the Supreme Court today, during sometimes heated exchanges under cross examination, Clive Mensink told Justice Martin Burns that he believes Queensland Nickel’s creditors, including its employees, “probably wont be paid”.

Mr Mensink made the comments during cross examination by Walter Sofronoff QC, a barrister acting for the administrators of Queensland Nickel (QN), FTI Consulting.

Mr Mensink has asked the court to issue an injunction preventing the QN administrators from appointing receivers to three other Palmer nickel companies who were in a joint venture (JV) with QN.

Queensland Nickel managing director Clive Mensink. Picture: Peter Wallis

Mr Mensink said he believed the JV agreement (JVA) gave him the power to sack QN as refinery manager and appoint a new company Queensland Nickel Sales.

Mr Mensink agreed with Mr Sofronoff’s suggestion that he believed the JVA allowed him to abandon QN laden with tens of millions of dollars of debts and no assets, and to pass the role of manager on to Queensland Nickel Sales which was “free of all liability and creditors”.

“Your belief is that this document (the JVA), allows Mr Palmer to take all the money he has taken (out), however much it was, out of the revenue stream from Queensland Nickel while it incurred obligations it was necessary to incur in order to generate the revenue, and then at a time of his choosing to sack that manager and appoint a new one, and leave the old manager with no assets from which to meet its obligations. Do you think that’s how the joint venture agreement operates?” Mr Sofronoff asked.

“Yes” Mr Mensink replied.

“Is that how u think this agreement operates, that it allows Mr Palmer to do that?” Mr Sofronoff asked.

“Yes” Mr Mensink replied.

“Am I right, tens of millions of dollars (of pre-administration debts). You just walk away from that don’t you?” Mr Sofronoff asked.

“Yes potentially, it depends on how the administrators (decide),” Mr Mensink said.

The case continues.

EARLIER: Clive Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink is set to take the witness stand in the Supreme Court today in his bid to get an injunction against the Queensland Nickel administrator.

On Wednesday morning a barrister representing three Clive Palmer-owned nickel companies told Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns that legal action had been launched in a bid to block the appointment of receivers over the three companies.

The barrister Nick Ferrett told the court that Mr Mensink “doesn’t want” receivers to be appointed.

Mr Ferrett said Mr Mensink was alleging that he had been “misled” by FTI Consulting in January.

FTI are the insolvency experts appointed as administrator of Queensland Nickel in January.

They have recommended Queensland Nickel be liquidated.

The case continues.