Corrs Chambers Westgarth has advised administrators Brian McMaster and Scott Kershaw of KordaMentha on the sale of Griffin Coal Mining Company Pty Ltd (administrators appointed) to Indian company Lanco Infratech for an undisclosed sum. The deal is reported to be the largest in-bound Indian investment in the Australian coal mining sector to date.
Griffin Coal went into administration in January 2010 when it defaulted on a coupon payment of $25 million under its US bonds. As a result, McMaster and Kershaw were appointed as administrators to evaluate the business going forward.
Commenting on the deal, Corrs Partner Iain Laughland said:
“We are delighted to have assisted the administrators on the sale of Griffin Coal. The administration has been long and complex with a number of critical operational matters such as port access and coal supply contracts needing to be resolved before the sale, together with the added complication of the administration companies being only part of the large Devereaux Group headed by Ric Stowe. The transaction also requires a pre-sale divestment of Griffin Coal’s power station assets which will be sold separately by the administrators in due course. The final stages of the sale to Lanco were completed in a short timeframe and it involved a huge team effort among KordaMentha and its advisers, including UBS, Macquarie, Baker & Mckenzie and ourselves to get to the point of inking the deal.”
In addition to the sale, Corrs has advised the administrators on a number of aspects of the administration, including advising on interim funding requirements to allow the business to continue to operate, general insolvency matters and matters related to the separation of Griffin Coal from the larger Devereaux Group.
Partners Iain Laughland and Dominic Emmett, and senior associate Simon Rear, advised on the corporate aspects of the transaction. Dom Emmett and Lisa Mazor led on the interim funding aspects of the administration, while Kirsty Sutherland and Sabrina Ng led on the litigious and court related insolvency matters. Other specialist lawyers involved in the transaction were Michael Harrison, Rebecca Strom, Nick Ellery, Liana D’Asciano and Frank Lawson.
Corrs has shared a relationship with KordaMentha since 2002, when the two firms worked together on the Ansett administration.
The sale is due to close in February 2011.
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