PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The creditors of embattled Queensland Nickel on Friday voted to support a recommendation by administrators to wind up the company.
Liquidators have now been appointed and would undertake to recover monies owing to creditors.
This recovery process could include pursuing recovery of any loss suffered by Queensland Nickel as a result of uncommercial and director-related transactions, the liquidators said.
A recent report by the Queensland Nickel administrators claimed that the company was used to fund owner Clive Palmer’s other interests, including his political agenda.
It was estimated that about A$200-million had been syphoned from the Queensland Nickel accounts into other companies within Palmer’s business portfolio, while the nickel company also forgave A$189-million in loans between 2012 and 2016.
The federal government recently announced that it would assist in paying out outstanding entitlements to the 787 former employees of Queensland Nickel, who were owed a combined A$72-million in redundancy entitlements.
The federal government was hoping to reclaim some of the entitlement payments through its Fair Entitlement Guarantee recovery programme.