Ken Talbot’s $45m Lake Como villa set to be sold as deceased estate running out of cash

A palatial Italian villa bought by the late mining magnate Ken Talbot is set to be sold as his deceased estate is running out of cash, a court has heard.

The late billionaire mining magnate Ken Talbot.

A palatial Italian villa bought by the late mining magnate Ken Talbot is set to be sold as his deceased estate is running out of cash, a court has heard.

Villa Calvi on Lake Como will be listed for sale with local agent Engel & Völkers, after the administrators of Talbot’s estate received valuations of up to $45m.

The villa is across the lake from actor George Clooney’s home.

Details of the pending sale were revealed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Monday where

Justice Melanie Hindman gave the green light for estate administrators to sell the home near Milan that Ken Talbot bought for $22m in 2007.

Brisbane lawyer Bill Boyd and accountant Paul Vincent, who are administrating the estate, were forced to apply to the court for permission to put it up for sale.

Mr Talbot’s widow Amanda Talbot, initially opposed the administrators plan to get court approval for the sale, because she wanted financial details about the estate and the opportunity to negotiate to buy the villa herself, the court heard.

But in court on Monday her lawyer said Mrs Talbot was now agreed that it could be marketed for sale.

The late Ken Talbot’s palatial Italian villa on Lake Como.

Barrister Damien O’Brien KC, for the administrators told the court that his clients had been advised the Italian summer was a prime “window” to try to sell the property.

The buyer will likely be a rich foreigner, one barrister suggested.

Summarising the evidence before her, Justice Hindman said that the sale was necessary because the cash reserves available to the estate were “dwindling” and that the estate could no longer afford to “prop up” the Lake Como property, which costs $500,000 a year to run and maintain.

Justice Hindman said that the home “can’t...remain unsold” because it is unfair to the other beneficiaries who include Mr Talbot’s two older children from a previous marriage, Liam and Courtney.

While the cash reserves are dwindling the estate still holds a very valuable undeveloped coal mining asset in Mozambique which has been difficult to sell, the court heard.

It was due to be sold in 2012 for $540m, but the deal fell over.

Justice Hindman told the court that the sale of the Mozambique mine site was not expected soon.

“There does not seem to be on the imminent horizon, a finalisation of the Mozambique mining interests,” she said.

Amanda Talbot, the widow of billionaire mining mogul Ken Talbot. Picture: Dan Peled

The villa and the Mozambique mine site are the last two assets to be sold, the court heard.

Technically the villa in the town of Blevio was not an estate asset, but as part of an agreement with the beneficiaries it was decided to include it in the estate.

Mrs Talbot has told the administrators she would like to buy Villa Calvi, because she “has an emotional connection to the property” and it was intended her family live there before her husband’s death in a plane crash in the Republic of Congo on June 19, 2010.

She told the court that she has been intimately involved in renovations to the home and that

she and her adult daughters, Alexandra and Claudia, have furniture and fittings at the home.

Mrs Talbot told a related court proceeding in the Supreme Court that she wanted to buy a home in Italy because her father was Italian.

Justice Hindman said that the home should be up for sale to test the market given that the valuations for the home obtained by the administrators varied.

“It does seem to me that in fairness... Mrs Talbot should be given every reasonable opportunity to purchase the Lake Como property,” Justice Hindman told the court.

Justice Hindman said that to “allow Mrs Talbot hopefully an opportunity to work out whether she can purchase the Lake Como property”, she ordered that Mr Boyd and Mr Vincent to hand over their “current best estimate” of the distribution that would be paid to each of the beneficiaries from the sale of Villa Calvi.

Mr Boyd and Mr Vincent have until 5pm on Friday to hand over the estimate, “assuming a range of potential sale prices between €20 million ($AU32m) and €40 million ($AU65m)”.

Justice Hindman has not made final orders relating to the sale of the home, as the parties are still deciding how to word orders relating to Mrs Talbot’s furniture at the home, and what should be done with it if the ultimate buyer does not wish to buy it.

The $60,000 worth of her furniture Mrs Talbot had at the villa was a subject of dispute with Mr Boyd in 2015, when Mrs Talbot refused to allow it to be used by tenants who were to rent the villa for up to €30,000 a week, an earlier proceeding was told.