Brenton Strauss makes $1 million offer to Sapphire creditors

UPDATE: Creditors of failed grain trader Sapphire (SA) Pty Ltd have voted to liquidate the company.

UPDATE: Creditors of failed grain trader Sapphire (SA) Pty Ltd have voted to liquidate the company.

In a tight vote at a meeting in Adelaide today, creditors voted to place Sapphire (SA) in liquidation and appoint Tony Matthews, of Anthony Matthews and Associates, as liquidator.

That was despite a late bid by Sapphire (SA) director and ultimate owner Brenton Strauss proposing changes to the Deed of Company Arrangement entered into on May 21, 2014.

Mr Strauss placed Sapphire (SA), which traded as River City Grain Co., into external administration in March, 2014, with Mr Matthews as administrator.

Mr Strauss has failed to meet previous deadlines for payments to creditors, which are owed $8.9 million.

The original Deed of Company Arrangement offered to make two 10-cent-in-the-dollar payments to creditors in October, 2014, and October, 2015, with guarantor of the offer being another Strauss company, Crazy Lace (SA) Pty Ltd, which owned the Nhill Bulk Handling site.

No payments have been made to date.

In a letter to the administrator on Tuesday, Mr Strauss offered to pay a one-off dividend of $1 million to unsecured creditors within 90 days, subject to a deal being struck between National Australia Bank and Crazy Lace (SA) over refinancing.

Creditor David Gillet said the latest offer was “pretty insulting”.