McMaster said to the best of KordaMentha’s understanding, all of Griffin’s employees were productive.
The Griffin administrator is also in the final throes of getting the $4 million prepayment organised, with the cash injection expected within days.
While the major outcome last week was the appointment of the committee of creditors, McMaster expects the first committee meeting next week although no date has been set at this stage.
McMaster said the administrators were going through operational issues at Griffin and resolving matters at that level while putting steps in place to get interested parties to either look at purchasing or restructuring the company.
Griffin, which costs about $500,000 to operate, is not expected to have any cashflow problems for the next month.
“The offer of a $4million pre-payment for three weeks worth of coal under the existing contract with Verve [Energy] was a way we could help ensure cash flow and buy time for the administrator so jobs could be maintained,” Acting Premier Kim Hames said on Saturday.
He said the pre-payment offer was subject to the coal meeting Verve’s existing contract requirements for quality and quantity, and that the money would be used for operational expenditure only.
KordaMentha was appointed administrator of Griffin two weeks ago with the coal company’s debts totalling more than $1 billion.
Griffin Group chairman Ric Stowe did not attend the creditors’ meeting last week and directors of the coal company could be held liable if sufficient evidence shows it was trading while insolvent.
Employee entitlements still to be paid include $750,000 in superannuation.
There are 24 members of the committee of creditors.
It is made up of Clearwater Capital Partners, Thornburg, Trust Company of the West, Evergreen Investments, Teachers Insurance and Annuity, Credit Distressed Blueline Masterfund, Harbinger Capital, Mitsui and Company, Cockburn Cement, Perdamen Chemicals, Royal Equipment Inc, Australian Railroad Group West, Australian Metalworkers Union WA secretary Steve McCartney, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union WA mining division secretary Gary Wood, Roderick Smith, NAB Capital Leasing, Caltex Australia, Piacentini and Sons, Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia’s Don Wood, IHI Corporation, TiWest, Bunbury Drilling, Komatsu Finance, and the Australian Taxation Office.
