Clive Palmer keen on Brisbane mansion owned by Peter Bond

Clive Palmer is believed be interested in acquiring Linc Energy founder Peter Bond’s seven-bedroom Brisbane mansion for $7.4m.

Rivergum Retreat.

Cashed up from a recent court win, businessman Clive Palmer has expressed interest in buying a seven-bedroom Brisbane mansion owned by Peter Bond, founder of the failed Linc Energy Group, for a bargain $7.4 million.

Mr Palmer has recently embarked on a spending spree after his estranged Chinese business partners Citic were ordered by a West Australian court to pay him $350m, and he has been scouring the market for luxury houses and cars, including five Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

The resources magnate’s cash splash comes as he continues to fight the liquidators of his collapsed Queensland Nickel company, who are trying to freeze his assets in Australia and worldwide and claw back $300m owed to creditors, including $70m to federal taxpayers.

Mr Bond’s mansion in the Brisbane suburb of Figtree Pocket, known as Rivergum Retreat, has been on the market for some time with an asking price of more than $8m. It was passed in at auction for $9.25m in August. Mr Bond paid $9.5m for the luxury waterfront in 2008.

Set on 1.2ha, the Needham Street property has 132m of water frontage on the Brisbane River, nine bathrooms and seven parking spots. The grounds include a private established rainforest and a 200-year-old Moreton Bay fig.

When asked about the purchase yesterday, Mr Palmer, who is understood to own at least 20 homes, mostly on the Gold Coast, denied buying the property. The selling agent is Ray White New Farm and a spokesperson denied the property had sold. Sources close to Mr Palmer said he is keen to add the property to his empire.

The former federal MP’s fortunes have improved after the West Australian Supreme Court last year ordered Citic to pay his flagship company Mineralogy royalties owed for iron ore from his Pilbara deposits.

Rivergum Retreat, with the river out the back.

In a recent Queensland Supreme Court affidavit, Mr Palmer confirmed his estranged Chinese business partners had paid up, transferring $350m into Mineralogy’s bank accounts on January 12. However, Citic says it will appeal against last year’s court decision that ordered it to pay Mr Palmer potentially hundreds of millions in outstanding royalties from the $US12 billion Sino Iron project in Western Australia.

An appeal from Citic had looked a certainty from the moment it lost last year’s legal action. The head of Citic’s Australian operations, Chen Zeng, said in a statement the judgment had “serious ramifications” for the viability of Sino Iron. “We owe it to our 2600-strong workforce, our shareholders and the wider Western Australian community to pursue all avenues of appeal,” Mr Zeng said.

Separate from his West Australian win, Mr Palmer is fighting a many-fronted legal battle in the Queensland courts against Queensland Nickel’s liquidators.

The liquidators, who are trying to claw back $300m owed to Queensland Nickel’s creditors after its collapse in early 2016, allege Mr Palmer acted as a shadow director for the Townsville-based refinery company and allowed it to trade while insolvent.

In an amalgamated “mega” lawsuit in the Queensland Supreme Court, liquidators allege Mr Palmer breached his duties as a director and should pay compensation of $204m. They are also demanding he return more than $170m in payments he allegedly siphoned from Queensland Nickel to prop up the rest of his corporate empire, his family, his own wealth, and two mysterious foreign women.