Gupta assets go under hammer

The assets to be sold include 31 articulated dump trucks and 6 loaders

DOZENS of mining assets and equipment belonging to a Gupta-owned company will go under the hammer next week as part of efforts to raise over R45 million to pay some of the controversial family’s creditors.

The equipment, owned by Confident Concepts – which is under business rescue – is used at the family’s Optimum Coal Mine and Shiva Uranium’s Brakfontein and Kwagga sites in Mpumalanga and Shiva Uranium in Klerksdorp, North West.

“Park Village Auctions and GoIndustry Dovebid are expecting to realise in excess of R45m for the assets belonging to Confident Concepts during next Thursday’s auction,” the auction firms told Independent Media yesterday.

The auctioneers said they were yet to be instructed on more assets belonging to Optimum Coal Mine and Shiva Uranium.

Currently the assets being auctioned are those business rescue practitioners have instructed Park Village Auctions and GoIndustry Dovebid to dispose of.

“Assets in the remaining companies (under the Oakbay umbrella) would need to take instruction from creditors and the business rescue practitioners on the best way to dispose and to achieve the highest returns,” the auctioneers said.

The assets to be sold individually or as a whole include 31 articulated dump trucks, nine excavators, six loaders, five tipper trucks, three rigid dumper trucks, two graders and jaw crushing plants.

Confident Concepts is among the companies through which the Guptas owned their prized properties and offices in Joburg.

The business rescue practitioner involved in the sale of Confident Concepts assets reserves the right not to accept the highest or any other offer until next Thursday afternoon.

Potential buyers can visit the sites in Mpumalanga and the North West to view the assets and equipment from tomorrow until Monday.

The Shiva Uranium Mine, which is situated in Hartebeesfontein, outside Klerksdorp, had been owned by the Guptas since April 2010 and in November last year it was among a group of 12 companies owned by the family that were placed under business rescue by parent company, Oakbay Group of Companies.

Last Thursday, two business rescue practitioners Louis Klopper and Kurt Knoop, accused of having links to the Guptas, withdrew from a deal to sell Shiva Uranium Mine.

The court accepted Klopper and Knoop’s resignations and allowed the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to appoint senior business rescue practitioner Cloete Murray to take over the rescue and sale of the mine.

The court also ordered the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission to appoint a second business rescue practitioner to assist Murray.

Last night Murray declined to comment.

Troubles for the Guptas started when a number of court applications were made challenging the impartially of Klopper and Knoop including allegations that they shared the same Pietermaritzburg offices with law firm Smit Sewgoolam, the Guptas’ legal representatives.

Last week Klopper and Knoop said they took the decision to resign following demands placed on their “resources, time” and other “litigious matters”.