COLLIE RIVER VALLEY
BULLETIN Published by LOCALS for LOCALS Thursday, October 13, 2022
EDITION No. 104
$2.50
Five-hour stand-off:
Wallsend St. barricaded
A MAN threatening to harm himself was involved in a five-hour stand-off yesterday (Wednesday) morning. Tactical response team members were among a large contingent of police who went to a home in Wallsend Street at about 6am following a report of screams coming from the property. The stand-off ended at 11.17am when the man was taken away by police in a patrol vehicle. He was taken to Collie Hospital for treatment. Neighbouring residents said despite living on the street for years, they had never seen the resident and the curtains were always closed. Police told the Bulletin they were unable to comment on what was a “selfharm” incident.
$1.4B. MINE DEBT MLC pleads with Griffin to look after locals THE longer Griffin Coal’s woes continue, the harder it will be for the people of Collie to deal with the fallout. This view was expressed by South West MLC Steve Thomas after it had been revealed that the company, which is in receivership, owes more than $1.4 billion, including debts to “the post office, the local butcher, baker and the tyre repair guy”. Mining analyst Peter Strachan said it was clear that Griffin was distressed and its lenders were staving off the inevitable by declining to write off their investment. Mr Thomas called on the mine’s bank-
ers, the ICICI Bank of India, to face reality and walk away from the troubled operation. “There’s no way they’re getting the $1.4 billion back,” Mr Thomas said. “Somewhere deep down in ICICI, they must understand that this company cannot survive.” Mr Thomas said the Collie community had been waiting years for an announcement on the company’s predicament. “They’ve dragged this out for years. “It’s been hidden from us and it’s been hidden from the community. “What we see in the liquidator’s report
now is all of this laid bare.” Mr Thomas said suggestions in the liquidator’s report that Griffin had recoverable assets worth about $200 million were likely to be grossly overvalued. Regardless, he said they would go practically nowhere towards paying the money owed to the Indian lenders. “It’s only the embarrassment of a few executive directors of the ICICI Bank and their need to keep hidden from their colleagues the disaster that they have presided over, that has kept this company alive for the past few years.” In a report to the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission, liquidator Cor Cordis, found Griffin owed $1.41 billion to secured creditors through a trustee known as Certane. A further $33 million was owed to over 230 unsecured creditors including WesTrac, Seven Group, Australian Taxation Office, Glencore Mining and many small Collie companies. Certane acts on behalf of an Indian banking syndicate led by ICICI, which has been the ultimate owner of Griffin since Lanco Infratech, which paid more than $700 million for the company in 2010, went under in 2017.
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