Perth-based hydrogen player Infinite Green Energy has brought in administrators less than 24 hours before a court hearing in a multimillion-dollar debt dispute its chief executive claimed the WA Premier could resolve.
KordaMentha’s Richard Tucker and Jared Palandri were handed the reins to the company and nine of its associated entities on Monday, according to documents filed with the corporate regulator.
Infinite Green Energy CEO Stephen Gauld.Credit: Kate Ferguson
The appointment came just hours before IGE had been due to front the Supreme Court in an investor row it had successfully kept under wraps until it was revealed by WAtoday, which is understood to have sent stakeholders scrambling to secure their investments.
For the past six weeks, IGE has been fending off a bid by Queensland-based investor DD Investment to have liquidators appointed over its failure to repay a $3.85 million debt.
According to court documents obtained by this masthead, IGE’s chief Stephen Gauld had attempted to thwart the bid by claiming he could call on the premier to obtain $5 million to service the debt.
The application followed a judgment DD Investment secured to recover funds outstanding from a May 2023 investment deal inked before their relationship soured.
The investment firm told the court it had grave concerns about IGE’s financial health and its capacity to recover the debt, submitting six months’ worth of correspondence laying bare its efforts to recover the funds and IGE’s repeated claims that payment was imminent.
But the most damning piece of correspondence was from Deutsche Bank’s anti-financial crime department, which claimed bank transfer documents IGE sent were inauthentic and should be treated with a “high degree of scepticism”.
Gauld, who represented the company before engaging lawyers Edwards Mac Scovell, pinned the delays on challenging global markets before claiming he could obtain $5 million from a taxpayer fund for economic diversification.
“If I need to go to Roger Cook tomorrow or Monday next week and say, ‘Roger, listen’ because he has got $60 million right now for renewable energy projects … Roger could give us $5 million from the [investment] attraction fund,” Gauld told the court, according to transcripts of the proceedings.
“I can go back to him next week and say, ‘Listen, we’ve got an urgent commitment, I need another $5 million’, and we will get this all done. It’s not an issue.”
Blackwall Legal’s Chris Pearce appeared in court on behalf of KordaMentha on Tuesday, successfully arguing for a week-long adjournment of the matter to allow the newly-appointed administrators to prepare.
The delay had been opposed by DD Investment’s lawyer Martin Bennett, who told the court his client had been forced to wait long enough for the enforcement of a judgment ordering that the payment be processed.
Court documents obtained by this masthead indicate IGE had failed to meet its court deadlines ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, including those set for the submission of its defence.
IGE and Gauld had previously denied the allegations and called for the wind-up application to be thrown out, claiming there was no evidence its assets were in jeopardy and branding the appointment of a liquidator a “drastic intrusion” into its affairs.
IGE’s lawyers at Edwards Mac Scovell declined to answer questions related to the case, but confirmed it was still acting for the company.
While acknowledging he had worked with the company and its officials, Cook was adamant he did not have a personal relationship with Gauld and the release of such funds were subject to stringent oversight.
“I have no idea why he would make that comment. I have no personal relationship with Stephen, but he is at one of our renewable energy companies and obviously, I work with him and his colleagues on a regular basis,” Cook told WAtoday.
“We need to make sure these monies are deployed in the most appropriate way, which is why the companies are subject to stringent oversight by the department, but also subject to meeting milestones as part of that payment process.”
WAtoday understands the company met the initial milestones necessary for the release of around $1.5 million, but that the department has since suspended payments because progress has stalled.
This masthead has spoken with a number of shareholders since the allegations were aired who expressed concerns about the company’s future and a desire to see a change of leadership.
IGE has attracted several high-profile investors, including reclusive billionaire Kie Chie Wong, who made his fortune as an early investor in Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group, and Sydney investor Lance Rosenberg’s Glenagle.
Concerns about the financial health of the company were first raised more than two years ago, when auditors at Grant Thornton warned they had doubts about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern.
At the time, the group had incurred an operating loss of $26.5 million, had a working capital deficit of $7.8 million and net cash flow of just $2.4 million.
The 2022/23 financial report was the last to be filed with the corporate watchdog.
The clean hydrogen hopeful, formerly Infinite Blue Energy, is behind several projects earmarked for Western Australia worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
IGE and partners Samsung C&T and Doral Energy have been trying to secure approval to build a $127 million small-scale hydrogen production facility in Northam, which was backed by the WA government in 2023 to the tune of $5 million but has struggled to garner support from planning authorities.
The appointment comes as the state’s environmental watchdog pores over IGE’s Arrowsmith Hydrogen Plant plans, which involve the construction of a wind and solar-powered hydrogen production facility across a 1929 hectare property about 30 kilometres south of Dongara.
IGE had hoped to produce first gas in the second half of 2026.
The company had also joined forces with Swiss energy giant Axpo on the Valle Peligna project in central Italy, which, if successful, would be one of the largest commercial-scale hydrogen plants in Southern Europe.
The project received the backing of the federal government’s investment commission Austrade and the Australian Embassy.
IGE’s project partners Samsung C&T and Doral declined to comment.
The appointment also comes almost 12 months after a board exodus at IGE, led by its chair and former Woodside chief Peter Coleman. The company’s chief financial officer departed eight weeks later.
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