Troubled WA winemaker Palandri has a new white knight in Mr Xibo Ma, a Chinese entrepreneur who was formerly the company’s second largest shareholder. In a $30 million deal, ‘certain’ wine assets of Palandri are now property of Global Wine Holdings, a newly formed private company controlled by Mr Ma, after interests were expressed by thirteen other parties. Since most of the 2008 vintage was sold to Global Wine Holdings, the company has continued its daily business. Deloitte’s Gary Doran, who along with Neil Cussen and John Greig, are the appointed Voluntary Administrators for the Palandri Wine Group, said the sale of the business as a going concern was the best outcome for Palandri’s creditors. Speculation has put Palandri’s various unsecured debts as high as $25 million, according to Western Australian Business News. ‘Global Wine Holdings’ bid was selected because it provided the highest return to secured creditors, pays outstanding employee entitlements, contributes cash and other assets by way of a proposal for a Deed of Company Arrangement for the benefit of unsecured creditors, funds the maintenance to the vineyards for 12 months and provides a potential exit for the growers’ said Doran. According to Western Australian Business News, former Palandri executive chairman Darrel Jarvis will become a non-executive member of Global Wine Holdings. The paper says that although Jarvis was instrumental in the deal and remains optimistic about the future of the wine business, the deal has come ‘at great personal cost, including the sale of his home’. It also reports Jarvis blaming the failure of the company’s finance wing on its ultimate demise.
