Thursday, February 4, 2010

Administrators Want To Sell Griffin Mining As A Whole

Administrators at Western Australia’s oldest mining company, Griffin Coal Mining, who were appointed last month after it defaulted on a bond payment, want to sell the firm as a whole rather than auction its assets separately, according to documents filed at the Federal Court of Australia this week.

The company owes more than A$1 billion ($881 million) to creditors according to the documents. Griffin had its mining leases valued at A$728.5million as at last June, although the administrators, KordaMentha, have yet to re-value the leases or appoint a sale adviser.

Griffin sells 90 per cent of its output to Australian power stations where prices have been less volatile than export contracts to Asian utilities which have tripled in price in the past seven years.

According to Brian McMaster, partner at KordaMentha, Griffin is currently cash-flow positive.

Mr McMaster said last month that there had been interest in Griffin from Chinese and Indian companies.

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