The Federal Court of Australia has granted the administrators of Murray & Roberts’ (M&R’s) Australian holding company Murray & Roberts Pty Ltd (MRPL) an extension to the convening period for a second creditors meeting to August 31.
The extension, which was granted on June 27, will allow for a revised deed of company arrangement (DOCA) proposal to be finalised in order for M&R to regain control of subsidiary RUC Cementation Mining Contractors and for any relevant conditions to the DOCA proposal to be satisfied.
M&R in March reported that it, MRPL and the administrators had entered into a binding DOCA term sheet that could result in RUC reverting to M&R’s ownership by the end of June.
M&R lost control of RUC when MRPL and its subsidiary Clough entered into voluntary administration in December 2022.
The terms of the revised DOCA proposal remain confidential at this stage and include certain conditions precedent. These include credit approval and MRPL creditors approving the DOCA proposal at the second meeting of creditors.
Information about the DOCA proposal will be available in the administrators’ report to creditors ahead of the second creditors meeting. Should the conditions precedent to the DOCA be met, it is expected that the DOCA will be implemented shortly after the second creditors meeting.
It will be the objective of any revised DOCA proposal that, upon completion of the proposed DOCA, MRPL will come out of administration.
Thereafter, control of MRPL and RUC will revert to M&R by MRPL becoming a subsidiary of Cementation APAC.
M&R believes the reinstatement of RUC within the group will re-establish the full scale and capability of the group’s core multinational mining platform.