New child-care operator named today
The Age
Wednesday December 9, 2009
ABC Learning's receivers are poised to announce new owners for the 705 viable child-care centres today as a public examination into the child-care operator's collapse gets under way in the Federal Court in Brisbane.ABC Learning's receivers, lead by McGrath Nicol's Chris Honey, are expected to announce their preferred bidder for the remaining centres with Mission Australia's not-profit consortium tipped to get the nod ahead of private equity group Archer Capital.The sale of the centres will pave the way for a much-delayed creditors meeting early next year to put the company into liquidation.The administrators, lead by Ferrier Hodgson's Greg Maloney, are relying on the public examinations, starting in Brisbane this morning, to provide the groundwork for potential legal action against ABC Learning's former directors and auditors.With the proceeds from the sale of ABC centres not expected to cover what is owed to the company's bankers, legal action may provide the only return for unsecured creditors whose claims total $1.48 billion.But the examinations might also provide legal grounds for overturning the secured charge ABC's bankers obtained over the company just months before its collapse.Mr Maloney told BusinessDay yesterday that the three-day examination in Brisbane will focus on "operational" personnel from the company.ABC Learning's controversial founder Eddy Groves, and other senior executives, will front a second public examination due to convene in the Federal Court in Sydney on March 1 and run for three weeks."This second stage involves orders for production and for the examination of certain directors of ABC, other ABC personnel, and certain non-ABC personnel who were associated with or had dealing with the ABC Group, who I believe have more detailed knowledge of ABC and the issues that need further investigation," the administrators said in a statement.
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