ONE of Western Australia's biggest privately owned companies, Griffin Coal, last night appointed administrators after missing $30 million in debt and tax payments due to be made on December 31.
The company, which has been operating since 1923 in the Collie area southeast of Perth, is controlled by one of Australia's most reclusive businessmen, Ric Stowe, who divides his time between Perth and Monaco.
Brian McMaster, the KordaMentha partner who was appointed to examine the company, said the 300-strong workforce would operate on a "business as usual" basis while he assessed the condition of the business.
Griffin Coal mines more than 5 million tonnes of relatively low-grade black coal a year, including about 1 million tonnes for use in the nearby Muja and Collie power stations.
Griffin is managed by Mr Stowe's son Robert Geoffrey Stowe, known as Geoffrey.
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Griffin is the second-biggest supplier of coal to WA power stations after the Wesfarmers-owned Premier Coal, although Wesfarmers is understood to have a contract to be sole supplier to state-owned Verve Evergy's Muja station after July.
Mr McMaster said his firm would start talks today with creditors, employees, unions, the WA government and other stakeholders.
A spokesman for the administrator said last night the company had about $700m in debt, including $US475m ($529m) in unsecured debt to US bondholders.
December 31 was the deadline both for a $25m repayment to the bondholders and also for a $5m payment to the ATO as part of a $25m settlement of a long-running tax dispute between the ATO and Ric Stowe, reached in the middle of last year.
Mr Stowe, who was last year estimated to have a personal worth in excess of $700m, including a yacht and private jet, settled the tax battle in March on the steps of the Federal Court after being originally assessed as owing $173m in tax.
The ATO investigation concluded in 2004 that the Griffin Group had sent money offshore and claimed improper deductions for multi-million-dollar debts, boats and aircraft expenses. It said the group understated its income by $183m, upon which the $102m bill, including penalties and interest charges, was calculated. The ATO imposed penalties worth $14m because it found evidence of "evasion" and "a high degree of carelessness" in Griffin Group subsidiaries, according to court documents.
Mr Stowe has also been waging a battle against the ATO over the deductibility of the $6.1m of management fees that his private company, Devereaux Holdings, reportedly paid to him and his chief financial officer, Graham Croots, in 2003-04.
An ATO audit of the company in 2005 disallowed almost all of the $3.15m deduction claimed for 2003-04, saying the fees had been inflated.
Source: The Australian
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