Receiver Moves Into An Island Resort
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday April 17, 1990
The Lindeman Island resort in the Great Barrier Reef has been placed in receivership by a secured lender associated with its half-owner, Australian Investors Corporation Ltd (AICL).
In turn, AICL has invited the trustees of its convertible secured note holders, Winchcombe Carson, to protect their interests as first ranking creditor by appointing a receiver to AICL itself.
AICL is controlled by Tyndall Australia, formerly Clayton Robard, and now trades at 1c a share. Tyndall has been searching for a way to fold the company up but was unable to sell its major asset, the stake in the Lindeman Island Ltd joint-venture company which owns the resort. Other assets include a controlling shareholding in the UK-based Wills Financial Services group, and about $1 million cash.
By seeking the appointment of a receiver to AICL, Winchcombe will prevent the lenders who have security over the Wills group shares, now worth much less than the loan, from having any recourse against the remaining cash in AICL. AICL argues its share of Lindeman, jointly owned with Mr Peter Adelstein, is worth nothing, even though in the hands of the receiver the asset would realise a substantial amount.
With Lindeman technically off its hands, and the ownership of the Wills stake likely to fall to the secured creditor, the AICL cash would be left for distribution to the note holders as the sole remaining creditors.
Coopers and Lybrand was appointed receiver of Lindeman by Tyndall Life Insurance Co Ltd - its secured creditor and also a Tyndall Australia subsidiary - and will be free to manage the resort and sell it without having to seek the approval of the jointventure partners.
It also effectively bypasses the need to get approval from AICL shareholders for the sell-off of their largest asset.
The investment manager of Tyndall Australia, and director of both Lindeman and AICL, Mr Peter Pedley, said there was a "strong possibility" Lindeman would have been in default of its loans, forcing the appointment of a receiver"in any case".
Jones Lang Wootton has searched without success for a buyer for the resort, comprising a four-star hotel and leisure complex set on 584 hectares in the Whitsunday Passage.
The partnership with Mr Adelstein was entered into in February 1987, and some $20 million was then spent on the refurbishment of the resort. Since reopening in early 1989 Lindeman has been dogged by bad weather, the pilots'dispute and a downturn in the Queensland tourist industry.
© 1990 Sydney Morning Herald
