The Guardian Australia

Greensill liquidator­s in Australia to investigat­e directors after company wound up

- Ben Butler

The Australian company that sat atop the globe-spanning Greensill finance empire will be wound up owing $4.9bn allowing liquidator­s to investigat­e its collapse.

At a meeting on Thursday, creditors of Greensill Capital voted 23 to 0 – with three abstention­s – in favour of winding up the company.

Liquidator­s from accounting firm Grant Thornton have previously said areas requiring further investigat­ion include hundreds of millions of dollars of transactio­ns between Greensill Capital and a trust controlled by Peter Greensill, the brother of company founder and Bundaberg sugar farmer Lex Greensill.

The investigat­ions are also likely to include grilling the directors and former directors of the company – who include Lex Greensill and former senior British public servant Bill Crothers – under oath in court as part of liquidator­s’ examinatio­ns.

A loan to Peter Greensill grew by US $244m in just three months between October and December 2019, the liquidator­s, Matthew Byrnes, Philip Campbell-Wilson and Michael McCann, said in a report to creditors this month.

“Several transactio­ns totalling US $174m then appear to be transferre­d out with the narration of ‘Payment of proceeds PG Family Trust’ or similar,” they said.

“Management has indicated these transactio­ns in part relate to the sale of shares by Peter Greensill, however, at this stage we are not in possession of sufficient documentat­ion to confirm.”

The 23 creditors voting for the move were owed a total of $1.7bn while the three abstaining creditors were owed a total of $2.96bn.

Greensill Capital itself had few assets apart from its interest in the group’s operating businesses in the UK and Europe, meaning any return to its creditors will largely depend on what can be recovered there.

The UK business is also at the centre of an inquiry ordered by the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, into lobbying carried out by Greensill adviser and former PM David Cameron.

As the Guardian has previously reported, in addition to lobbying government­s, Cameron’s activities while at Greensill included meeting with an Australian insurance executive named in legal action related to the group’s sudden collapse in March.

Creditors of Greensill Capital also voted on Thursday to form a committee of inspection to oversee the work of the liquidator­s.

It will include Greensill’s major backers, Credit Suisse and Japanese venture capital group Softbank, as well as representa­tives of German banks that have made a claim of €2bn ($3.15bn).

Greensill owned a German bank and the claim represents an estimate of how much it owes under the country’s deposit protection scheme.

Also on the committee will be representa­tives of the Peter Greensill Family Trust, Greensill’s employees and vendors of a company called Earnd that the group owned who are still owed money due to the sale.

Greensill’s collapse has thrown into doubt the financing of steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s empire, which includes mills in the UK and Australia.

Gupta has insisted he can refinance debts owed to Greensill, which he disputes, and Australian government­s have made encouragin­g noises about bailing out the steel mill in Whyalla, South Australia, if he cannot.

However, they have stopped short of guaranteei­ng they will rescue the mill.

 ?? Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images ?? Greensill offices near Warrington, England. Creditors of the Australian company Greensill Capital have voted to wind up the company which owes $4.9bn.
Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images Greensill offices near Warrington, England. Creditors of the Australian company Greensill Capital have voted to wind up the company which owes $4.9bn.

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