Administrators for the troubled milk supply company National Dairy Products (NDP) have announced another creditors meeting is to be held to decide the company’s future.
The meeting comes amid claims the company may now be put into liquidation.
Deloitte joint and several administrator Glen Kanevsky has written to creditors, telling them the next meeting would be held on Monday, February 13.
The second meeting of creditors was held just before Christmas last year and adjourned until the end of February.
“The primary purpose of that adjournment was to allow the proponents of a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) an opportunity to revise their initial proposal for further consideration by creditors,” Mr Kanevsky said.
“The purpose of this circular is to advise that since the meeting of creditors, we have not received any revised proposal from the proponents of the original DOCA.”
As no revised proposal had been received, the second creditors meeting would now go ahead.
“Unless there are changes to this position in the interim, we will forward details of the reconvened meeting and all relevant materials to creditors shortly,” he said.
Administrators have told unsecured creditors they could expect as little as five cents in the dollar under a DOCA.
The administrators said if NDP was declared insolvent, creditors could expect nothing or just over a cent in the dollar.
Deloitte found the company had liabilities of $9.2 million, made up of $4.3 million to unsecured creditors and a further $4.7 million owed to Mr Esposito as an unsecured loan.
Among those owed substantial amounts of money include Peter Stoitse Transport ($1.35 million), Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB) ($479,756) and Tatura Milk ($197,000).
Farmers are also owed sums of up to $1.1 million in projected claims.
NDP founder Tony Esposito said liquidation was now a possibility.
“If that’s what’s chosen and the DOCA is not accepted in the form that is put forward, that’s what it is,” Mr Esposito said.
He said he would speak with his lawyers, about the DOCA, before deciding whether or not to it should be revised.
He said he had nothing to hide.
“I did nothing wrong, other than support farmers at the worst time they had seen for a long time, out of my own pocket,” Mr Esposito said.
But Gippsland dairy farmer Fiona Plant said the current DOCA was “an insult.”
Ms Plant, and her husband Lynden, have a 900 cow farm at Riverslea, north-east of Sale.
She has said NDP owed them $558,000.
“The DOCA, as it stands in its current form, is totally unacceptable,” Ms Plant said.
“We are not asking for anything other than what we are owed, he has to come back with a revised DOCA, with substantially more than what it is, in its current form.
“Otherwise we will vote for liquidation.”
She said she had talked to other creditors, who were adamant the deed was totally unacceptable.
“We would rather write that off, and see him held to account.”
Ms Plant said what was most upsetting was that Mr Esposito had not been in touch.
‘We have had no contact from him, we have been available to him, for a meeting in person, but he hasn’t responed – there has been no negotiation, no movement whatsoever.”
