Banks and “hundreds” of other creditors
will not see the money they are owed, the administrators for Penrice Soda have
said.
McGrath Nicol has recommended that Penrice, which was put in voluntary administration in April and owes over $150 million,
be liquidated.
Fairfax reports that NAB and Westpac, who are owed a combined $111 million by the soda and limestone maker, face “a significant shortfall”. There will also be no return to unsecured creditors.
About 180 former Penrice employees were
told that in the creditors report that staff would have to apply for the
federal government’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee, The Australian notes.
Cement company Adelaide Brighton, as had been predicted earlier, emerged as a buyer for Penrice’s limestone and marble
quarry at Angaston.
“The quarry acquisition represents a strong strategic fit for
Adelaide Brighton by securing a high quality marble deposit for the supply of
raw material to the company’s Angaston plant for lime and off-white cement
manufacture,” said Brighton, according to the Barossa Herald.
A creditors meeting will be held in Adelaide tomorrow.