The 400 or so creditors of collapsed print group Geon have been told they may have to wait until the end of June before the second creditors’ meeting, which was initially slated for this week.
All creditors have received a letter from the administrator PPB Advisory letting them know that the convening date fore the second meeting had been pushed back as far as legally possible, which means June 30.
In the letter PPB says, Due to the complexity of realizing the assets of Geon in an orderly manner the receivers have requested that we approach the court to seek an extension of the convening period for the second meeting of creditors.”
The letter to creditors rules out any immediate payment of debts, it says, “All debts owed by any company in Geon at the date of the voluntary administrator’s appointment are frozen, and as administrators, we are unable to discharge any of these debts. These debts rank as unsecured claims against the relevant Geon company. Payment of these amounts is dependent on the outcome of the receivership and voluntary administration processes.”
Most creditors are already resigned to seeing little of their monies, with Geon’s latter day owner KKR having first dibs on any cash the receivers can raise to the tune of $80m.
The sell off of Geon kit and assets is expected to begin in around six weeks, with buildings and equipment up for auction in NSW, VIC and QLD.