A member of the consortium designated as the preferred bidder for the Liberty Bell Bay manganese smelter has effectively pulled out, with workers told administrators have until Monday to secure alternative funding.
Liberty Bell Bay, in northern Tasmania, was placed into administration in March, and late last month the administrators EY Parthenon announced the preferred bidder — a consortium including Perth-based Adroit Capital, ASX-listed OM Holdings and White Oak, a US private equity firm that was a secured lender to former parent Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance.
A town hall meeting in George Town on Friday morning was attended by EY Parthenon administrator Morgan Kelly, Liberty Bell Bay workers and Federal Labor member for Bass Jess Teesdale.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one worker who was present told the ABC that administrator Morgan Kelly had told this morning’s meeting that Adroit Capital had not been able to come up with their portion of the funding and had effectively “pulled out of the consortium”.
“If they can’t find someone to replace, fill that capital funding hole, there will be the closure of Liberty Bell Bay,”
the worker said.
“So, we’ve got another meeting lunchtime on Monday, and they’ll be announcing then if they’ve got the funding and things are going ahead or if the [smelter] will be closing down.”
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