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GABORONE, April 11 (Reuters) – Botswana’s High Court has taken Tati Nickel Mine out of provisional liquidation, dismissing a request for more time to negotiate with potential buyers, the liquidator said on Wednesday.
Tati — a subsidiary of the liquidated BCL mine group — has since October 2016 been under provisional liquidation, which was twice extended after liquidator Nigel Dixon-Warren asked for more time to pursue a deal with investors.
The High Court took the company out of liquidation on Tuesday following the lapse of the last extension.
“The decision effectively places the company back into the control of the directors and this is highly prejudicial to the creditors,” Dixon-Warren told Reuters on Wednesday.
“The company was insolvent when it was placed under liquidation and it remains so now. Tati has no means to operate as going concern.”
When it was placed under liquidation, Tati had incurred a cumulative loss of 1.6 billion pula ($165 million) and owed creditors one billion pula, with its former parent company BCL being the largest creditor at 800 million pula.
Dixon-Warren said he would urgently appeal the court’s decision to try to protect the creditors’ interest.
He said at least three companies had submitted indicative offers to buy Tati and he needed more time to conduct due diligence on them before asking them to submit firm offers.
($1 = 9.6712 pulas)
(Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Keith Weir)
