Lenders ditch troubled firm
Lice one Aimee, give nits the flick
IT is a problem that leaves many children and adults scratching their heads – and a Coolangatta businesswoman believes she has found the answer.
Mum-of-two and Be Natural Health owner Aimee Williams is the creator of No Nits Naturally, a spray designed to prevent children contracting head lice.
“I kept hearing the anguish and frustration from parents at school about keeping their kids free of nits, so I started researching a solution,” she said.
Ms Williams is studying biomedical science at Endeavour College, Southport.
“My spray uses Indian neem oil and a blend of Australian essential oils, including lavender and eucalyptus,” she said. “The neem oil helps to interrupt the breeding cycle of lice.”
In India, oil from the neem SLATER & Gordon’s big bank lenders have bailed on the embattled law firm, selling their debt at a heavy discount to a US vulture fund.
The law firm said more than 94 per cent of its $740 million debt pile – a sum higher than its market value – had been offloaded to secondary buyers.
Westpac and National Australia Bank were key lenders to tree is used as a pest-prevention spray and in soaps and handcreams.
Ms Williams came up with her idea five years ago and tested the product on family and friends.
“My eldest son has never Slater, its last financial report shows.
Both have taken a 75 per cent haircut on their loans which have been bought by US hedge fund Anchorage Capital, market speculation has said.
Anchorage led a syndicate of second-tier lenders that bought a separate slice of Slater’s debt from Citi for 38¢ in the dollar in November.
Slater said its new senior lenders intend to implement a “solvent restructure” of the had nits,” she said. “He uses it every morning. I’m selling this because it works.”
Ms Williams markets the product at schools and kindergartens.
She is in the process of having the spray approved by company and reset its debt structure to ensure it had a stable business platform for its Australian and UK operations.
“The company and new senior lenders believe a restructure by a debt for equity lender scheme of arrangement is in the best interests of all stakeholders,” it said.
This would involve Slater paying back its lenders by issuing them with stock, diluting the value of existing shares.
Shares in Slater surged by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and said its ingredients have been certified as safe to use.
“My product is Australian-made and is completely chemical-free. It is an easy, natural way to repel nits. Kids close to 50 per cent to 13¢ yesterday as fears the firm would be wound up eased.
Slater, the first law firm in the world to be listed on a stock market, fell into disarray on the back of its disastrous move to buy British insurance and professional services group Quindell for $1.3 billion in 2011.
A crackdown on ambulance-chasing lawyers in the UK and questionable Quindell accounting methods forced Slater to essentially write off spray it lightly on their hair before school to repel the little critters for the day.”
The spray costs $12. A hair solution treatment costs $14.
It is estimated 15-30 per cent of primary children contract lice at least once a year. the acquisition, resulting in a $1 billion loss for the 2016 financial year.
The firm, which employs more than 4500 people, is the target of a class action and is being probed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
At its peak in April 2015, shares in the law firm reached $7.85, giving it a market capitalisation of $2.75 billion. Yesterday its market capitalisation was $45.8 million.