Consultancy behind QNI liquidators claim to have paid creditors back in full

After eight years QNI liquidators claim a favourable outcome for the businesses that were owed money.

An aerial photograph of the Yabulu Nickel Refinery. Picture: Supplied.

Queensland Nickel’s liquidators have claimed they have paid creditors back in full after an eight year corporate struggle, which at the centre involved the loss of almost 800 jobs at the Yabulu refinery.

FTI Consulting’s executives said this week they have managed to return 100 cents back to the dollar, or about $200m owed, to more than 1500 creditors.

It’s a result that senior managing director Kelly Trenfield described “very rare” considering its size and complexity, and said the dedication knowledge of long-term employees made the difference.

“Nothing to do with Queensland Nickel is straightforward,” she said.

A surplus of funds would be the focus on a federal court matter later this year, as it looked to be portioned off to claimees as interest.

Australian billionaire businessman Clive Palmer at a press conference in Sydney about the construction of Titanic II, at the Opera House in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Rohan Kelly

Its unclear to the liquidators how many of the affected creditors and employees remain in the Townsville community.

“The only real gauge we get is the fact we send out a report and a lot of them come back ‘return to sender’.

“But we do understand certainly when we were freshly appointed, there was lots of information forms, and a lot of the employees were still in contact after their employment had come to a conclusion, and there was certainly a share of information.

The front of the Yabulu nickel refinery and of cars in the carpark in 2018. Picture: Alix Sweeney.

“But whether they’re still in Townsville, I couldn’t say.”

The consultancy had been able to distribute $70m across to most of the affected 787 Queensland Nickel employees that lost their jobs in that time, after a massive effort shifting through 1.7m documents, and dealing with 40 pieces of litigation and 27 court applications.

The consultancy was first appointed to scrutineer the company after financial difficulties and a sharp drop in nickel prices, and its aim initially was to preserve jobs and protect company shareholders.

Ms Trenfield has been central to the investigation from the start, and she recalled the mood first visiting the refinery in early 2016, when there was fear and distrust of what voluntary administration could mean for the city’s economy and the livelihoods for 800 families.

And yet the investigators needed to reply on the employees’ knowledge.

The media firestorm surrounding key shareholder Clive Palmer brought an intense level of scrutiny and heightened emotions.

“Everyone by that stage was, you know, pretty fraught, pretty stressed about the entire situation, and realistically they just wanted to know what was going to happen and what our approach would be,” she said.

“We’re insolvency practitioners with decades of experience so we know how to do what we do really well.

“But we also know that we need to rely and earn the trust of the people who were there and because the know the business better than we have, and Queensland Nickel employees, some of them, had been there for decades and they lived and breathed it and they really did to some extent loved Queensland Nickel.

“And that sort of dedication is going to provide you with more information than looking at a balance sheet or going through some financials line.”

She said experienced employees financial concerns about Queensland Nickel and therefore the consultants examined “the money trail” and realised the scope of the investigation needed to change.

“Unfortunately that left just one option; liquidation,” she said.

It was clear to the consultancy that Queensland Nickel’s operations were unsustainable as it operated at an exorbitant loss of $1m each week.

A Townsville City Council spokesman confirmed that in August 2020 it received the outstanding fees and charges it was owed by QNI.

Originally published as Consultancy behind QNI liquidators claim to have paid creditors back in full