Ric Stowe the owner of collapsed energy supplier Griffin Coal is drawing millions of dollars in fees from the company even as the company owes over $1 billion to its creditors and staff.
A report to creditors will be issued this week by company administrators which will include the results of their investigations into if there have been unreasonable director related transactions or potential breaches of the Corporations Act by company directors.
The administrators of the company are seeking to auction off the failed Bluewaters power station and the Emu Downs wind farms in Western Australia. The $ 1.2 billion worth Bluewaters power stations and the $200 million worth Emu Downs wind farm have attracted bidders from Australia, Asia, and North America after initial expressions of interest were called for last year.
The auction follows the sale of Griffin Coal to Indian infrastructure giant Lanco Infratech. The company was sold in December 2010 for a value of $830 million. The Chief Executive Officer of Lanco Suresh Kumar said that the group intended to ramp up the production from 5 million tonnes annually to 18 million by 2015 at Griffin Coal. Much of this will be exported to India to help Lanco increase its power generation capacity from 2100 megawatts to 15,000 megawatts by 2015.
The assets are encumbered with more than $1 billion worth of debt. The company owes money to creditors like Clearwater Capital, Tiberius and Jefferies International.