The High Court of Botswana has denied the liquidator of Tati Nickel mine a further six month extension of his contract that he had sought.
Nigel Dixon-Warren had approached the High Court seeking to be given a further six months extension to his contract to wind up the sale of the mine.
The extension of the contract would not have sat well with Botswana government where groundswell of opinion had been building against the high fees of the liquidator.
Dixon-Warren had previously been given a similar extension after saying a deal was in the making. But it did not happen.
According to information received by The Telegraph, the Government of Botswana was no longer willing to extend a contract of the Liquidator after a decision was taken not to proceed with the liquidation of the Francistown based miner.
The liquidation was voluntary.
The change of heart on the party of Government not to sell Tati Mine is in part influenced by increase in world commodity prices including those of copper and nickel.
A change of heart on the part of Government will equally not sit down well with Nigel Dixon-Warren who has been getting about P6 million a month from Government as the liquidator.
Tati Nickel is wholly owned by Botswana Government and was a subsidiary of BCL mine in Selibe-Phikwe.
In the papers he had lodged with the court, Dixon-Warren stated that there is a new potential for the sale.
This is despite a previous extension where a deal was promised but the transaction fell through.
“The transaction to which I referred in my affidavit before Court did not materialize for a number of reasons which cannot be disclosed in this affidavit by reason of confidentiality agreement which I signed during the negotiations. As a consequence of the collapse of these negotiations, the exclusivity arrangement that I had entered in to with this particular interested party also lapsed,” says Dixon-Warren in his latest affidavit.
He says following the collapse of the last bid, he has embarked on identifying new suitors. In the past Dixon-Warren’s exorbitant fees have been a source of public consternation.
“I accordingly think it is in the best interest of creditors to request a further extension of six months in order to complete the process.”
“In my view there is a reasonable prospect that the indicative offers received may result in a transaction that may benefit the creditors of Tati. However the process will require some time as indicated above,” he adds.
“I point out that it is always open to me, and to any other interested party to seek to anticipate the return date. In my opinion the creditors are unlikely to be prejudiced by this extension. Indeed the extension of the provisional winding up order will be to the benefit of creditors of Tati.”