Huon Valley Seafoods: Buyer found for distressed company with sale expected next week
A Tasmanian seafood company that appointed a liquidator in the wake of a “significant falling out” between its old and new guard is likely to be revived under new ownership.
Tasmania
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A Tasmanian seafood company that appointed a liquidator earlier this year in the wake of a “significant falling out” between its old and new guard is likely to be revived under new ownership.
Huon Valley Seafoods Pty Ltd, located at 49 Wilmot Rd, Huonville, a vertically integrated company involved in the sourcing, processing, packaging, distribution, wholesaling and export of a variety of seafoods, collapsed on July 24.
According to a report filed with corporate regulator ASIC, the company’s directors, Ling Pu and Yuan-Sheng Xie, estimated its debts at $3,161,544.01.
Liquidator Louisa Sijabat, of Sydney firm Merchants Advisory, previously told the Mercury that the company’s troubles were prompted by an internecine war between company founder Ambrose Coad and Stephen Oates, and a mainland investor, Fin Capital Pty Ltd, which came aboard in 2021.
On Friday, Ms Sijabat said she expected Huon Valley Seafoods would be purchased shortly.
“We are expecting to enter into a sale agreement very shortly. We do expect it to be signed next week,” she said.
“It has progressed very well. We were very pleased with the response to the sale campaign. “We issued 42 information memorandums to different parties. From that, we were pleased with the offers we received.
“We have gone with the highest offer.”
Ms Sijabat said she was unable to reveal any information about the prospective buyer until a sale agreement was signed.
She said work continued on the statutory report to creditors, which is expected to be filed in late October. The statutory report – also known as a 70-40 report – sets out comprehensively the company’s financial position and explains the reasons for its downfall.
Asked whether she expected any dividend to be paid to creditors, Ms Sijabat said she was of the opinion the “first-ranking secured creditor” would receive “some funds”.
She said she was assisting employees who were left out of pocket via unpaid leave entitlements to be reimbursed under the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee Scheme.
Since Ms Sijabat’s appointment, Huon Valley Seafoods’ business operations have been kept afloat via its founders, Mr Coad and Mr Oates, who stepped back in to operate the business at reduced capacity in order that it could be offered for sale as a going concern.
Mr Coad previously told the Mercury he was not the “laid back retired guy I should’ve been”.
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