Tinkler cries 'cash poor' in court, but family's trust is valued at $1.4b

DateMarch 16, 2013

The embattled coal baron Nathan Tinkler has declared his family trust is worth $1.4 billion but he concedes he is ''asset rich, cash poor''.

In the year ending 2011, Mr Tinkler's taxable income was just $9834. He expects it to be about the same next time, he revealed on Friday during a liquidator's examination of his failed private entity, Mulsanne Resources.

Mr Tinkler was being grilled in the Supreme Court in Sydney over Mulsanne's failure to pay a debt of $28.4 million but this number was left in the shade late in the day when he was asked to detail his personal finances.

The Tinkler Group Family Trust, he said, was worth about $1.4 billion and was controlled by his wife, Rebecca, who could give him money tax-free.

''Is that what happens?'' asked Robert Newlinds, SC, for the liquidator. ''Your wife gives you money from time to time.''

Mr Tinkler, 36, replied: ''I'm very lucky, yes.''

The former mine electrician hit pay dirt when he sold his stake in Macarthur Coal in 2008 for $440 million. The trust had paid $100 million in tax, so money could then be distributed tax-free. Mr Newlinds asked how much Mr Tinkler might draw from the fund at a time. He wasn't sure. Could he round it to the nearest $100,000? No. The nearest million? No.

He said they had a total of about $250,000 in bank accounts.

The assets in the family trust included Patinack Farm, the horse stud that he valued at $100 million after debts - ''at least''. They also included Hunter Ports, Aston Metals and a major stake in Whitehaven Coal.

The numbers swirling in court clashed at times. Mr Newlinds turned Mr Tinkler's mention of $1.4 billion for the trust into $1.2 billion at the next mention. He asked Mr Tinkler if that included liabilities. Yes, about $600 million. That left a net worth of about $600 million, Mr Tinkler agreed.

Earlier in the day, Mr Tinkler had put the total debts for the Tinkler Group at ''probably around $500 million''.

The liquidator is examining Mulsanne's failure to fulfil a contract to pay $28.4 million to acquire a third of the coal explorer Blackwood Corporation.

Mr Tinkler has told the court that, as the global coal price collapsed last year, he could not raise this money from financiers or from his preferred source - by selling his royalty stream from the Middlemount coal mine to the Noble Group. Noble owns 51 per cent of Blackwood.

Mr Tinkler says Noble director Will Randall told him he wanted to buy the royalty stream and that they had done much bigger deals on a verbal exchange. But Mr Newlinds said there was no deal and he interrogated Mr Tinkler on why he kept ''no email, no letter, no note'' that recorded his discussions with Noble.

Mr Tinkler said he ''pretty quickly'' worked out he had been ''hung out to dry'' after Mr Randall ''just went offline'' the day before the Blackwood deal was to settle. But why did Mr Tinkler not mention that in correspondence to Mr Randall three months later? ''In my business experience, the best way to ask for help is not by kicking someone in the teeth.''



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/tinkler-cries-cash-poor-in-court-but-familys-trust-is-valued-at-14b-20130315-2g64m.html#ixzz2Nc1EeE1M

Nathan Tinkler reveals $500m debt for first time

by: Anthony Klan From: The Australian March 15, 2013 3:09PM

FORMER billionaire Nathan Tinkler is now next to worthless on paper, today telling a Sydney court that his empire has debts of about $500 million.

Mr Tinkler's main asset, about 200 million shares in the listed Whitehaven Coal, was worth just under $500m today, suggesting that his current net worth is near zero, or in the negative.

Most of the coal entrepreneur’s other major assets have been repossessed or sold off, or have been wound into those Whitehaven interests.

Facing public examinations into the collapse of his group Mulsanne Resources, Mr Tinkler was asked to estimate the debt of his entire group "to the nearest hundred million".

Some reports have previously estimated that debt to be as high as $700m.

Mr Tinkler told the New South Wales Supreme Court he had faced "duress" in recent months because of a "vigorous media campaign against me".

There has been extensive media coverage of the former pit electrician’s failed attempt to buy Whitehaven for $5.3 billion last year, the sale of much of his horse racing stock, including star colt All Too Hard, and the Australian Tax Office’s threat to wind up his sports teams, the Newcastle Knights and Jets.

The fortunes of Mr Tinkler, who made his fortune with clever wheeling and dealing following the initial purchase of a $1 million coal tenement, are likely to hinge on whether there is a pronounced recovery in global coal prices, and on the performance of Whitehaven in particular.

Coal junior Blackwood Corporation placed Mulsanne Resources in liquidation after Mr Tinkler failed to proceed with a $28.3m agreement to buy a one-third stake in Blackwood.

Blackwood is funding liquidator Ferrier Hodgson to conduct the public examinations of Mr Tinkler’s broader finances in the hope of obtaining some or all of that money.

Robert Newlinds SC, representing Ferrier Hodgson, ridiculed Mr Tinkler's claim his fortunes had been hurt by a "media campaign" and said it was his souring financial position that had attracted media attention.

The examinations are continuing.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/nathan-tinkler-denies-rift-with-ex-partner-higgins/story-e6frg9df-1226598120392

Nathan Tinkler wants $16m jet returned

by:
JENNIFER SEXTON From:
The Sunday Telegraph January 06, 2013
12:00AM


NATHAN Tinkler is scrambling to refinance the $US11.9 million ($11.42 million) debt on his seized private jet and chopper before receivers sell them.

The embattled former billionaire lost his Dassault Falcon 900C and AgustaWestland helicopter to receivers last month after failing to make $230,000 monthly payments to a creditor.Mr Tinkler has told the receiver of his private company TGHA Aviation he hopes to pay out the creditor to secure both the jet and chopper.

Mr Tinkler has estimated the jet is worth $16.23 million and the helicopter $5.3 million.
But receiver Nathan Landrey of Taylor Wooding told The Sunday Telegraph regardless of Mr Tinkler's talks with lenders, he would press ahead to list the aircraft for sale. "I can't stall the process of receivership every time a director floats that they are going to refinance," he said.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/nathan-tinkler-wants-16m-jet-returned/story-fncynkc6-1226548140127

Former billionaire Nathan Tinkler's racing dream could be over after the scratching of Patinack Farm horses in Brisbane

by: Jeremy Pierce From: The Courier-Mail December 31, 2012

RACING stewards are believed to have conducted a raid on Patinack Farm's Canungra stables this morning to check on the condition of Nathan Tinkler's horses.

The raid follows the surprise scratching of Patinack's four runners at Doomben on Saturday, with Count Encosta, Boys On Tour, Reflectance and Sookie all taken out.

Speculation on the Queensland arm of the business has been growing following several below par performances in recent weeks from Patinack trained runners, which had previously been performing in superb form under the guidance of Thompson and Queensland stable manager Brett Killion.

Racing industry insiders claim the Newcastle Knights owner is set to place his Queensland operations on ice until his business empire bounces back from mounting debts.

More than 30 people are employed at Patinack's Canungra base in the Gold Coast hinterland and many are already reportedly looking for new jobs as speculation continues that Mr Tinkler's racing empire is on borrowed time.

The mogul has closed his Melbourne stables and speculation continues that Queensland will be next to go.

Patinack Farm has 15 horses listed for sale at next month's Magic Millions carnival after more than 300 were offloaded in a fire sale earlier this year.

Retail king Gerry Harvey has confirmed loaning Mr Tinkler millions of dollars.

A win to Ferment in NSW at the weekend was a rare bright spot for Patinack on the same day four horses were scratched at Doomben, sending the racing rumour mill into overdrive.

No Patinack horse has won in Brisbane for 28 starts, placing further financial strain on the business.

Patinack Farm is easily the biggest employer at Canungra, but locals say many staff have had enough.

"It's already come out that a lot of them weren't getting their super and a lot of them are looking for new jobs," a Canungra trader said.

"They can see the writing on the wall and it's been the talk of the town."

Another trader said it would be a sad end to a sorry saga if Mr Tinkler closed Canungra's Patinack operations.

"It's sad because when he set up Patinack out here everyone thought of him as a saviour who was going to drive the economy for the whole town," he said.

"But he got a lot of people offside right from the start."

Some contractors and suppliers contacted by The Courier-Mail yesterday said they were paid up to date, but others have cut their losses.

Mr Tinkler bought his Canungra holdings three years ago for a reported $28 million, but real estate agents said he would be lucky to get close to $20 million for it now.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/former-billionaire-nathan-tinklers-racing-dream-could-be-over-after-the-scratching-of-patinack-farm-horses-in-brisbane/story-e6freuy9-1226545419033

Mining magnate Nathan Tinkler's racing stable Patinack Farm Administration placed in liquidation
AAP November 21, 2012 6:55PM

Rosier times ... Nathan Tinkler with prominent trainer Anthony Cummins. Source: Stuart Mcevoy / News Limited

Patinack Farm Administration, an arm of Nathan Tinkler's racing empire, has been placed in liquidation.

In the latest blow to the mining magnate, the Federal Court in Adelaide on Wednesday ordered that Patinack Farm Administration Pty Ltd be wound up in insolvency.

The decision followed legal action brought by creditor WorkCover South Australia claiming almost $17,000 in unpaid monies.

Wednesday's ruling came just a day after another of Tinkler's companies, Mulsanne Resources, was placed into liquidation following a NSW Supreme Court order over an unpaid $28.4 million debt to coal company Blackwood for a stake in the business.

Patinack Farm released a statement on its website in response to Wednesday's ruling and ensuing media reports.

"There was an administrative error in the WorkCover matter by an associate company of Patinack Farm, and the outstanding monies, as well as costs, have been paid," the statement said.

"There will be no further comment."

The placement of Patinack Farm Administration into liquidation is the most recent in a string of troubles for Tinkler's embattled racing empire.

Last week, Patinack Farm announced the closure of its 50-box Melbourne stable, although it still has bases in Sydney and Brisbane.

It also confirmed chief executive Peter Beer had been released from his employment contract as part of the downsizing of its racing business.

The stable closure and the departure of Beer came shortly after it was revealed that Sydney and Melbourne race clubs had held back hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizemoney won by Patinack Farm horses to offset the operation's racing debts.

The debts relate to unpaid stable and track fees as well as sponsorship arrears.

Last month, Tinkler offloaded more than 300 of his thoroughbreds at auction and will dispose of a further 40 mares at the upcoming Inglis Sydney Summer Thoroughbred sale.

Nathan Tinkler flies in the face of his creditor

by: Phil Jacob From: The Daily Telegraph November 17, 2012 12:00AM

HE has seen his fortune slowly dwindle away as creditors begin to close in - now mining magnate Nathan Tinkler is on the verge of losing his beloved jet.

Not his Newcastle Jets A-League side, but his own personal jet, valued at $40 million.

Mr Tinkler is believed to have literally flown away from his problems by using the plane to return to Singapore this week, despite the aircraft being the subject of repossession by creditor GE Capital.

It is believed Mr Tinkler's combined liabilities total more than $638 million across multiple backers, including Farallon Capital, Westpac and GE Capital.

Frustrated by his continued attempts to delay repaying his bad debts, a source close to GE Capital said: "(Mr Tinkler) was instructed by GE to leave the jet at Bankstown airport, but has blatantly ignored all advice by flying the plane to Singapore as much as he feels like."

In a 2008 book, Sydney motoring aficionado Tim Sommers wrote that Mr Tinkler had fallen out of love with his first private jet - a $7 million Hawker 400XP - saying: "I don't want the f...ing thing anyway. I paid too much for it and I don't like it.

"Once it had someone else in it I didn't want it any more. It's like someone f...ing your missus."

Only a clean slate would do - in this case a Dassault Falcon 900, a French-made jet used by the government of Qatar and the Intelligence Agency of Germany.

Capable of seating 12 passengers in its plush, Italian leather seats, the plane also features an internal conference room and bar.

Mr Tinkler's Falcon 900, with the registration VH-LUL, is believed to have flown directly into Singapore on Thursday afternoon from Bankstown airport, where it was stationed for four weeks.

A spokesman for Mr Tinkler last night failed to quash rumours surrounding the repossession, insisting only "the Tinkler Group knows nothing about it".

The news caps a horror month for the one-time billionaire, who has seen his wealth plummet to less than $400 million. It comes as The Daily Telegraph revealed Sydney and Melbourne race clubs had withheld almost $600,000 from his racehorse winnings to offset debts.

Mr Tinkler's Patinack Farm had also asked Racing Queensland Limited to transfer prizemoney to creditors. He is also due back in court next week over a $28.4 million debt with coal explorer Blackwood Corporation, which is suing Mr Tinkler's Mulsanne Resources.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nathan-tinkler-flies-in-the-face-of-his-creditor/story-e6frexni-1226518455606

Wish I had the money to get a couple of horses. Love the last line as well.

Some of the horses sold yesterday had some ironic names given Tinkler's misfortunes. The first horse auctioned was called A Happy Day. It and its foal sold for $5000 after the auctioneer tried in vain to attract a starting bid of $20,000.

Others horses sold included Spiralling, Awaiting Closure and Only Way Is Up.

Buyers feast on Nathan Tinkler's misfortune at Patinack Farm auction

by: Greg Stolz From: The Courier-Mail October 31, 2012 12:00AM

SADDLED with debt, embattled ex-billionaire Nathan Tinkler has resorted to horse trading to try to save his crumbling empire. Or not, if you believe his people.

Tinkler's Patinack Farm stud manager yesterday insisted a massive horse sell-off by the besieged tycoon was "just a simple reduction in numbers" and not a sign of desperation.

But bargain-hunters at the "no reserve" auction of more than 300 Patinack Farm horses at the Gold Coast's Magic Millions sales complex begged to differ.

"He's in strife all right - he's got to sell," one happy buyer said.

The sale was expected to reap several million dollars, with $240,000 the highest price paid yesterday for a horse.

About 200 breeding mares, many pregnant and with foals in tow, were knocked down for as little as $1000 as horse breeders, owners and trainers from around Australia and overseas cashed in on Tinkler's woes. Another 120 race horses will go under the auctioneer's hammer on Friday.

The sale comes days after The Daily Telegraph revealed Tinkler, Australia's youngest-self-made billionaire but whose wealth dived by $730 million last year, was traversing the globe in a desperate bid for cash to prop up his flagging fortunes.

The mining and horse-racing entrepreneur, who also owns the NRL's Newcastle Knights and A-League's Newcastle Jets, has been losing $2 million a day as commodity prices plunge and angry creditors pursue debts.

Magic Millions and Patinack Farm described the horse auction as a "reduction sale".

Stud manager Ben Lawrence admitted it was the biggest sell-off by the largest breeding and horse racing enterprise in the country but said it was because the stud could not cope with its hundreds of horses.

"The sale is just a simple reduction in numbers," he said. "We've got over 600 brood mares, we're having 500 foals a year and we can't handle them all. It's not a fire sale at all and anyone in the industry that knows how these big operations work would understand that.

"Everyone does it (sell horses) but obviously we do it in a bigger capacity."

Horse breeder Peta Oxenbridge, of the Winning Colours Farm at Rockley, near Bathurst, picked up a pregnant mare - a half-sister to former VRC Oaks winner Saleous - for $2000.

"It's a bargain," she said. "With the pedigree and the price, you just simply couldn't go wrong. It's a no-brainer."

Some of the horses sold yesterday had some ironic names given Tinkler's misfortunes. The first horse auctioned was called A Happy Day. It and its foal sold for $5000 after the auctioneer tried in vain to attract a starting bid of $20,000.

Others horses sold included Spiralling, Awaiting Closure and Only Way Is Up.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/superracing/buyers-feast-on-nathan-tinklers-misfortune-at-patinack-farms-auction/story-fn67r1j3-1226506975876

Knights tax debt settled

By BRETT KEEBLE Oct. 24, 2012, 11:13 p.m.

HSG had attributed the debt to the former Knights administration.
.NATHAN Tinkler's Hunter Sports Group has paid a tax bill of more than $365,000, averting a potential winding up of the Newcastle Knights Members Club.
See your ad hereThe bill formed the basis of a statutory demand issued on October 5 by the Australian Taxation Office against the Knights members club.
The 21-day deadline for that statutory demand meant the debt had to be paid by tomorrow - or application made through the courts to have it set aside - or the members club could have been deemed insolvent Members club chairman Nick Dan said HSG chief executive Troy Palmer had informed him and deputy chairman Allan McKeown yesterday that the bill had been paid.
Dan, who was elected unopposed at a meeting last Thursday to replace Peter Corcoran as members club chairman, spoke to the Newcastle Herald last night.
"It appears that the bill has been paid, in line with the commitments HSG had given the Knights members club," he said.
HSG would not comment when contacted last night.
HSG had attributed the debt to the former Knights administration.
The debt came to light during an ATO audit of the members club. Both sides agreed HSG would pay it.
Corcoran resigned as the members club chairman at the start of a board meeting last Thursday.
Dan was then elected unanimously as his successor, and McKeown was elected unanimously to replace Dan as deputy chairman.
Since a meeting with Knights advisory board chairman Paul Harragon last Friday, Dan and McKeown have engaged in regular correspondence with Harragon and Palmer over the tax bill, which was due to be paid before tomorrow.
Dan, whose election as members club chairman came exactly one week after HSG asked him to stand down from the Knights advisory board, hoped settling the debt would allow the members club and HSG to establish a more harmonious working relationship.
See your ad here"We've got to have a good relationship because we all want the Knights football department to perform well, and I believe it's only with a united front office that that will have a chance of happening properly," Dan said.
Dan said the Knights members club board, comprising himself, McKeown, Corcoran, Trevor Crow, Steve Doran and Leigh Maughan, would meet in the next few weeks to nominate their two appointed representatives to the Knights advisory board.
Crow is already on the advisory board as Newcastle Rugby League chairman and Doran is believed to be ineligible as he was appointed to the members club board by the Newcastle Rugby League, not elected by Knights members.
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local-sport/

Jets to circle the drain come season end again?

-PB

Losing $2m a day costs Tinkler top spot on rich list


By PENELOPE GREEN Business Reporter Sept. 26, 2012, 10:59 p.m.

.BLEEDING $730 million over the past year, or about $2 million per day, Nathan Tinkler has lost his top-earner's crown in Business Review Weekly's 2012 Young Rich List.
See your ad hereReleasing its annual report card yesterday of the earnings of the 100 wealthiest self-made Australians under the age of 41, BRW said Mr Tinkler's wealth had dropped from $1.13 billion this time last year to $400 million.
The wealth slump has knocked Mr Tinkler from the top of the magazine's Young Rich List for the first time in four years.
He has slipped to second place behind technology moguls Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, whose combined earnings at their software company Atlassian was $480 million.
With a $730 million earnings slump in the past year, BRW said Mr Tinkler held the record for the biggest ever wealth drop on its Young Rich List.
The magazine poll comes after Mr Tinkler last month pulled out of his ambitious $5.25 billion tilt at Whitehaven Coal, and as he faces legal pressure over at least two major business deals.
See your ad hereOn Tuesday, Queensland coal explorer Blackwood Corporation moved to appoint liquidators to one of the former billionaire's companies, Mulsanne Resources, in a bid to recoup $28.4 million over a failed share placement.
Next month, construction giant Mirvac will continue its action in the NSW Supreme Court against two of Mr Tinkler's companies, Ocean Street Holdings Trust and the Buildev Group, over a failure to pay an estimated $17 million to complete the purchase of a block of land at Mayfield West.
Mr Tinkler is next month scheduled to sell horses from his Patinack Farm at a Magic Millions auction, with the racing industry reportedly expecting 202 of his broodmares to fetch $1 million.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/361679/losing-2m-a-day-costs-tinkler-top-spot-on-rich-list/?cs=391

Jets to circle the drain come season end again?

-PB

Nathan Tinkler battles to hold on to his empire

by: Vanda Carson From: The Daily Telegraph September 25, 2012 1:45PM

EMBATTLED mining magnate Nathan Tinkler has been slapped with a second lawsuit in the NSW Supreme Court as he battles to hold on to his empire.

He facing the winding up of one of his key investment companies by a small stock market listed coal mining company, Blackwood Corporation.

It lodged the lawsuit yesterday, seeking $28.4 million owed by the mining billionaire's company Mulsanne Resources.

Blackwood has applied to wind up the company.

Supreme Court records show the case will have its first hearing on November 6.

It is listed as the matter of TBD - Application under Corporations Act: Blackwood Corporation Limited.

Mr Tinkler is already facing a lawsuit by Mirvac arm Domaine Steel in the same court.

Domaine has sued two of Mr Tinkler’s companies, Ocean Street Holdings and guarantor Buildev Group.



That case returns to court on October 23.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nathan-tinkler-battles-to-hold-on-to-his-empire/story-e6freuy9-1226481073226

Nathan Tinkler lives it up as the empire struggles

by: Liam Walsh, James McCullough From: The Courier-Mail September 22, 2012

PIT electrician-cum-mining magnate, horserace lover and rugby league fan Nathan Tinkler has been living in a high-class area of Singapore as questions swirl about his financial empire.
Mr Tinkler moved to Singapore earlier this year and has declined all requests for media interviews.

In his wake, his companies have left a trail of disgruntled suppliers and businesses and mounting speculation that his companies are off-loading assets across the country to repay substantial debts.

The Courier-Mail has tracked Mr Tinkler and his family to an address near Singapore Botanic Gardens, described by a local real estate agent as "a high-class bungalow area".

The agent said Mr Tinkler was known locally as a rich man.

Mr Tinkler has used the address in company documents and a Singapore journalist, working with The Courier-Mail, said she spoke to his wife last week at the home.

Hunter Valley-born Mr Tinkler, 36, burst on to the corporate scene after the former electrician spent $15 million for a coal deposit at Middlemount in Queensland, selling that in 2007 to Macarthur Coal for about $275 million in cash and shares. Then he put Macarthur into play by selling his stake at the top of the market.


.But recently, his financial empire has faced corporate strife with a proposed takeover deal for Whitehaven Coal collapsing, Queensland coal explorer Blackwood saying it would take legal action to chase $28.4 million allegedly owed from a promised equity placement and developer Mirvac locked in a court dispute over a $17 million property deal.

A spokesman for Mr Tinkler declined to comment on his Singapore lifestyle, among other issues. These included talk of the sale of his three-engine Dassault Falcon 900C, adorned with an Australian flag on its tail.

For all the appearances of Mr Tinkler being under financial pressure, there are indications that is not the case.


.One indication is a property in Pullenvale on Brisbane's outskirts with an old empty house, which his Oceltip Investments No.2 bought for $2 million in 2008.

The property is for sale by Brisbane Real Estate for that same price and has been since 2010. Typically, in a fire sale, the seller quickly lowers the price to gain a buyer.

But other operations are seemingly winding down. It's been widely canvassed that Mr Tinkler is looking to sell down his racehorse interest.


.One operation is seemingly running late. In Newcastle, there is a three-building development planned called Honeysuckle Central, once heralded as a "vibrant new addition" to the CBD.

The proponents include Mr Tinkler's Buildev Group. But three local sources said construction appeared to have stopped.

The Courier-Mail in August reported that Mr Tinkler had sought an extension of the settlement date to buy 443 Queen St for $38 million.

Also in Queensland, Buildev is tangled in a court dispute. Local packaging company Mark Colin Packaging (Qld) Pty Ltd and associated group Promark Packaging Pty Ltd recently filed action in the Brisbane Supreme Court to try and recover $189,900 allegedly owing from Buildev Group, among other parties, over a botched warehouse development.

Mr Tinkler bought into Buildev in 2008 and a spokesman said the Queensland dispute had absolutely nothing to do with the entrepreneur.

"This happened back in 2006 before Tinkler took over Buildev," the spokesman said.

Lobbyists SAS Group have also been seeking repayment of $60,000 from one of Mr Tinkler's companies.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/nathan-tinkler-lives-it-up-as-the-empire-struggles/story-fn7j19iv-1226479137957

Boom and bust
DateSeptember 15, 2012 Read later

It was a $1 million roll of the dice and it turned him into a billionaire. But have Nathan Tinkler’s gambling ways gone too far? By Ben Hills.


Nathan Tinkler was on the phone from his office in the Honeysuckle estate on the Newcastle waterfront, begging and pleading: "I'll pay you, I promise, just give me some more time ... Don't let them take my stuff."

It was a winter's afternoon in 2005 and one of Tinkler's many creditors had finally lost patience and sent in the sheriff's officers to seize what they could. The debt was only $19,000 - peanuts compared with the hundreds of millions of dollars Tinkler would borrow over the next few years - but the people on the other end of the line had had enough of the "drip-feed" tactics Tinkler had taken and were determined to collect.

Two years earlier Tinkler and his father, Leslie, had walked into the offices of the earth-moving equipment importer Melroad, in the southern Melbourne bayside suburb of Carrum Downs, to discuss taking up a franchise in NSW's Hunter Valley. "I remember them walking in," says the company's managing director, Phil Lellman, laughing. "They were like clones - half a ton of meat each, I'll tell you. They looked like a couple of yobbos [with their] big legs and double chins. We had to find a couple of big chairs for them without arms."


King of Tinklertown … Nathan Tinkler with one of his horses at his Patinack Farm stables in May 2010.

The Tinklers may have looked like hicks but, says Lellman, "they could talk the talk and walk the walk, even though they were a bit clumsy on their feet, [and they] said how they could sell all these machines ... But it was all smoke and mirrors. We were conned." The pair walked out with a hand-shake agreement, and a few days later were back with a truck to transport three brand-new Japanese Kobelco excavators back to Muswellbrook, where they had a business servicing the surrounding Hunter Valley coal mines.

Advertisement A few months later, Lellman and his national sales manager, Doug McQuinn, received some disturbing news. One of the machines, worth about $40,000, had been sold to a local contractor - and Nathan Tinkler's company, Custom Mining Solutions, had not passed on the proceeds to Melroad. Failing to get a satisfactory explanation, they cancelled the franchise agreement and took the story to the NSW District Court where they obtained an order for the payment of the money.

Still Nathan Tinkler kept stalling, and later Lellman and McQuinn would find out why: he was scraping together every cent he could beg or borrow for a $1-million deposit on some neglected coal-mining leases at a place called Middlemount in central Queensland that he believed were worth a fortune. He sold his house, he borrowed money, he withheld payment from creditors like Melroad - and even some unfortunate apprentices working for him - but eventually Tinkler got the money together.


That was why he was so desperate not to have the sheriff seize the furniture, and particularly the computers, in the flash Newcastle offices into which he had moved. On the hard drives was all the information - the financials, the geological reports - that Tinkler would need to build one of the fastest fortunes in Australian business history. "He'd have done anything to stop us taking those computers away," says McQuinn. "He agreed to pay it off, he agreed to personally guarantee the debt, he agreed to pay interest ... it was amazing. I think we were the only people to get our pound of flesh out of him."

For Tinkler, the humiliation of having the debt collector at the door was worth it. The story has been told in a hundred gawping business-page profiles. How within two years he had turned that $1 million into a cool $441 million as he traded the leases for shares in a company called Macarthur Coal that almost trebled in price as China's insatiable blast furnaces drove the price of coal to record levels. How last April he was hailed as Australia's youngest self-made billionaire after doubling down that bet on another coal deposit at a place called Maules Creek, near Narrabri in northern NSW.

Now it all appears to be unravelling. His latest, and biggest, deal - an eye-popping $5.2-billion bid to take over the Whitehaven coal company - has fallen apart. Investigations over the past two months have found that Tinkler's empire has been embroiled in no fewer than five major court cases with a potential downside of nearly $200 million. Angry creditors are lining up. The huge, high-interest loans from banks and private equity funds that underpin his coal holdings are falling due. Hundreds of racehorses from his vast stable are to be sold at an everything-must-go auction next month. The stable of $500,000 supercars and motorcycles has already gone. Luxury houses have been sold at knock-down prices and the hilltop site in Newcastle where he planned a $14-million mansion is empty; Tinkler and his family have abruptly moved to live in Singapore.


In the money … Tinkler with his wife, Rebecca, and friend John Singleton at a Magic Millions function on the Gold Coast in early 2010.

It may be premature to predict his demise; Tinkler has leapt from the jaws of debt before. But he already holds the record as Australia's briefest billionaire. Alan Bond bestrode the Australian corporate landscape for nearly 20 years, and went from winning the America's Cup to bankruptcy and jail. Christopher Skase had a gilded decade as a billionaire before fleeing into exile. The value of Nathan Tinkler's main asset, his stake in Whitehaven, has plummeted from $1.2 billion to around half of this in less than four months. He didn't need Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to tell him that the resources boom is over. Still aged only 36, he is disappearing before we really got to know him.

So obsessively does Nathan Leslie Tinkler guard his privacy that the Australian Who's Who in Business lists neither the date (February 1, 1976) nor the place (Port Macquarie, on the NSW mid-north coast) of his birth, nor where he did his growing up and schooling. In fact, his home town is not in the Hunter Valley, as most think, but frosty Inverell on the New England tablelands. Nor was his upbringing as humble as he would like to imply. His lookalike father was an earth-moving contractor and Nathan did his early schooling at a private Catholic parish school, Holy Trinity, before moving to the local state school for his final two years.

Leslie Tinkler now runs a stable of racehorses from a small stud named Serene Lodge at the hamlet of Kendall, near Port Macquarie, and is frequently seen around the country racecourses in the area. Like their famous son, the Tinkler family seem to regard the media as a particularly unpleasant skin disease. The only comment I could get was from his younger sister, Donna Jane Dennis, who answered her mobile phone to recite as if from a script: "The family is extremely proud of Nathan. He has done amazing things and we love him dearly. Thank you." She then hung up. Tinkler himself called journalists "gibberers" in a speech, and once, famously, told off a journalist from Melbourne's Sunday Age who had the temerity to phone him: "You're a f...ing deadbeat. People like me don't bother with f...ing you. You climb out of bed for your pathetic 100 grand a year, good luck."

His teachers say there was no hint that he would ever make a mark in the world, particularly after he failed his Higher School Certificate, coming in the bottom third of results in the state - or so he boasts. "He was just an ordinary sort of a kid," says his former headmaster at Inverell High, Paul Alliston. His only interests were punting on racehorses (he used to wag school to hang around the local TAB betting shop) and rugby league, where he played in the forwards - "not the tallest in the team, but the heaviest", says his former coach, Martin Sullivan, who recalls the day young Tinkler survived a tremendous kick in the head. "When he came out of hospital, someone said, 'They don't have that many stitches in a wheat bag.' I bet he's still got the scar."

His other great hobby was eating; he has never been able to keep his appetite under control, even though he was once shadowed everywhere by a man who described himself as Tinkler's personal trainer, lifestyle coach and bodyguard, Corey Baldock. "We always knew when Nathan had been over," says a neighbour whose son went to school with Tinkler. "The fridge was empty." A former business partner said he was fond of "Devonshire cream teas" for breakfast, and a friend and fellow racehorse owner, the furniture and electrical chain magnate Gerry Harvey, speaks in awe of the night Tinkler defeated another elite boozer, media multimillionaire John Singleton, in a drinkathon, downing two cans of beer for every one that Singleton was able to choke down. A few months ago, however, his spokesman, Tim Allerton, surprised journalists at the Newcastle Herald by providing and requesting they use a new portrait of a substantially slimmer Tinkler, rather than the baggy-bellied profile shot that they had been using. The rumour spread that, desperate to lose weight, he had had a stomach-banding operation.

When Tinkler left school he was urged by his father to leave small-town Inverell and get a trade. He moved to Muswellbrook and trained as a pit electrician, something he later described as a "dirty mongrelly job". When he could eventually afford a Ferrari, he ordered a customised licence plate: PIT LECO. (A former worker at the mines recalls Tinkler, never keen to exert himself, getting into his car to drive 50 metres, reaching out of the window to flick a switch, and then driving 50 metres back rather than walk.) Along the way he married a buxom blonde, Rebecca, and they had four children in fairly quick succession: "Up the valley we didn't get [pay-TV provider] Austar and that back then, [so] we started early," he once said.

In 2002, aged 26, he formed the Support Services business (renamed Custom Mining Solutions in 2005), which eventually employed about 50 people providing electricians and other maintenance workers to the coal mines in the district. But somewhere along the way he had caught the mining bug - his great hero was the billionaire Ken Talbot, the founder of the Macarthur Coal mining company who was killed in a plane crash in the Congo in 2010 while awaiting trial on charges of bribing a Queensland cabinet minister (the cabinet minister, Gordon Nuttall, got 14 years' jail). The price of coal was beginning a decade-long climb and Tinkler began searching for a prospect, eventually settling on Middlemount, selling his business, moving to Newcastle and staking everything he owned on that $1-million roll of the dice.

Tinkler had become a mogul, though not a mining mogul as is often wrongly reported. He has never mined a tonne of coal in his life, making his millions instead by borrowing money to buy mining leases and then selling them at a profit. While the price of coal rocketed skywards - it quintupled in a decade - he looked like a genius. But people failed to understand that if you buy a duck farm and the price of a duck goes to $100 because newly affluent Chinese like eating them, you are not Einstein, you are just a lucky duck farmer. Now that the tide has gone out, as the American investment guru Warren Buffett is fond of saying, we can see who has been swimming naked.

The stories of the stupendous spending spree Tinkler went on after he cashed in his almost-half-a-billion-dollar profit on the Middlemount deal are legion and legend. He bought up some of the most expensive real estate all along the NSW coast and into Queensland. In Newcastle, he lashed out on not just one house but three, clustered around beachside Dixon Park in the ritzy suburb of Merewether. He spent $8.8 million on two adjoining hilltop houses, demolished one and then had the council approve a $14-million redevelopment for the site. On the other side of the park he paid a whopping $4.3 million for a mansion owned by local rugby league legend Andrew Johns, almost double what the place was worth, judging by its sale four years later for $2.8 million. According to one local real-estate agent, "He was a very naive purchaser, like a Lotto winner. In this case the big red ball came down right on Andrew Johns's head."

His foray into racing also won him few real friends, apart from the vendors of horses (and the saleyards that took a commission) who were suddenly showered with hundreds of millions of dollars as Tinkler set about building the biggest racing stables and stud business in the country. "We're trying to create another Woodlands here," he bragged, referring to the stud built up over decades by the "chicken kings" Jack and Bob Ingham, which in 2008 was sold to Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum for $460 million.

For much of 2007-08, there was hardly a thoroughbred sale on earth that didn't share a piece of Tinkler's largesse. In three days at the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast, he bought 48 horses for $13 million. He bought another 32 yearlings at Karaka in New Zealand for $7 million. He bobbed up with bids at sales in Deauville, France, Tattersalls in the UK, Keeneland in the US and in Argentina. He told goggling reporters in Hokkaido, Japan, that his "lifetime goals" included winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and the Japan Cup, two of the world's most famous races. But where to put all these horses?

Just before Christmas 2007, Andrew Bowcock and his wife, Lasca, got a call from a real-estate agent saying he had "a guy who's fallen in love with your property", Alanbridge, a boutique horse stud in the Segenhoe Valley near Scone in NSW that had been in the family for 65 years. "It's not for sale," he said. Back came the answer: "Everything's for sale at the right price." The buyer was Nathan Tinkler and he was not going to take no for an answer. Eventually the Bowcocks agreed to part with the property for $8 million - "the dearest bit of dirt ever sold in the Segenhoe Valley", says Andrew Bowcock. Something else struck Bowcock as weird: "I showed him around the property, but do you know he never even walked into the house before he bought it."

Bowcock agreed to stay on as bloodstock manager but things became strained as Tinkler continued to buy horses by the hundred - at one stage he was buying two a day, every day. Alanbridge became too small to accommodate them all, so Tinkler spent millions more on another nearby stud, Riverslea, and renamed the two properties Patinack Farm. But something wasn't right. The Bowcocks started getting complaints that suppliers were not being paid. "Nathan was trading off our good name because no one knew him from a bar of soap," says Bowcock. "There was the feed, the farrier, the vet - he would just hang them out to dry until they went for a summons. It's just the way he is. 'Because I can' should be his motto."

Tinkler, says Bowcock, proved to be "very, very abrasive. If he wants something done, he wants it done yesterday and he doesn't mind stepping on people's toes. I think he feels that people are dispensable." After just six months "for some unknown reason he sacked us"; the Bowcocks had joined a lengthening list of people whom Tinkler befriended, used, then discarded. Researching this profile, I came across no fewer than seven trainers, a managing director, a stud manager and a racing manager, all of whom Tinkler had sacked, and most of whom had finished up bruised and out of pocket because of the experience. The stud is now referred to locally as "Pat'n'sack".

Most prominent of these is the Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings, son of Australia's most famous trainer, Bart Cummings. "It's a sensational opportunity for me," enthused Cummings when Tinkler engaged him to buy and train his stable in 2008. Three years later they were facing each other in the NSW Supreme Court with barristers drawn. Cummings originally claimed he was owed $167,000 in training and upkeep fees, later upping the ante to more than $1 million, claiming commissions were also owing. Tinkler cross-claimed that Cummings had taken $2 million in "secret commissions" from vendors of horses he bought for Patinack Farm. Before things could get even uglier, Gerry Harvey - who, with Singleton, owns the Magic Millions - mediated a compromise over a four-hour dinner at a Sydney restaurant. Cummings, like many of the people Tinkler has dealt with, says he is bound by a confidentiality agreement not to talk about the settlement.

At last count, Tinkler had spent between $200 million and $300 million buying 1300 horses, including 10 stallions for which the service fee ranges up to $22,000 per stallion. Patinack Farm has become the biggest horse-owning business in the country - but is it the best? Inevitably, buying at such a pace, mistakes were made, most embarrassingly when Tinkler agreed to pay $2.5 million for a star stallion named Sidereus, only to discover that it was a "rig" - it had only one testicle. So far the results of Tinkler's spree have not been promising: of all the hundreds of starts his horses have had, he has won only half a dozen of the richest group 1 races. He has said his hobby is costing him $2 million a month. For all this, he won no more than $5.5 million in prizemoney last season, and possibly collected a similar amount in stud fees.

Says one racing insider: "The horse-racing industry thinks he's a bit of a joke; he's haemorrhaging money like you wouldn't believe. Anywhere in Australia there's racing you'll find Tinkler has a horse and it's the most expensive horse in the race and it's running seventh. He is getting a terrible bang for his buck. He's hired and fired people, used them up and then spat them out in a most brutal fashion. He's also got a trail of creditors you wouldn't believe."

As if to confirm this grim prognosis, last month news leaked that he had tried to sell his entire operation to Sheikh Fahad al-Thani, the Qatari royal who owns last year's Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden, for $200 million. Thanks but no thanks, said the sheikh. So next month, there will be a special Magic Millions clearance sale at which Tinkler will try to sell 350 of his horses. Gerry Harvey would not comment on a report that Tinkler is so cash-strapped he had to get an advance of $20 million on the sale.

Nathan Tinkler's splurging of millions on his other hobby has also ended in tears. Since he was a lad, he has always loved fast cars, as this article from the Newcastle Herald of 2005 attests:

HUNTER STREET HOON
Magistrate Richard Wakely fined Nathan Leslie Tinkler, 29, of Beaumont Street, Hamilton, $1600 in Newcastle Court yesterday. He disqualified Tinkler for six months for driving a car at 108kmh in a 60kmh zone in Hunter Street at 2.15pm on September 19.

In 2008 a Sydney motoring aficionado named Tim Sommers advertised for investors in a business he had established, the Australian Supercar Club. The club had bought and leased a stable of some of the world's most expensive, and exclusive, cars: for a fee of $20,000 to $50,000 a year, its members could drive cars that cost up to $500,000 each, including a Ferrari Scaglietti, a Lamborghini Gallardo and a convertible Rolls-Royce. Tinkler saw the ad and - typically - wasn't content with just becoming a member, he wanted to buy the club.

Sommers flew to Tinkler's office in Brisbane (where he couldn't get a park because Tinkler's Ferrari was sprawled across four parking spots). While Tinkler watched non-stop racing from around the world on a giant flat-screen TV, they negotiated a deal in which Tinkler would initially buy 40 per cent of the club for $2 million. Wrote Sommers in his e-book, Big Boys Fall Out Over Their Toys: "I think that Nathan is a very charming guy when you first meet him. You don't get to where he's got without knowing how to manage people. But when you actually get into bed with him he changes. At every level of business the man-mountain is determined to be ruthless and beyond ruthless. He loves the skulduggery."

Almost inevitably, within nine months the two were at each other's throats, the locks had been changed on the club's Mosman office, Sommers had been voted off the board of the company he founded, the whole operation was placed in receivership with debts of around $4 million, and Sommers and Tinkler squared off in the NSW Supreme Court.

The case ended in a bloody draw with Justice Richard White criticising both sides as having acted in an "oppressive manner". He ordered Sommers to pay $189,000 for two top-of-the-line Audis he appropriated, and Tinkler $218,000. But the case provided, in the affidavit by Sommers, some extraordinary insights into Tinkler's foul-mouthed, bullying character and his way of doing business - and why the word "boganaire" was coined to describe him.

Tinkler, Sommers swore, was "very blokey, a 'man's man' [who] swore and cussed virtually every sentence" and "his sexist and racist behaviour was shocking". He traded in his first private jet, a $7-million Hawker 400XP, saying, "I don't want the f...ing thing anyway. I paid too much for it and I don't like it. Once it had someone else in it I didn't want it any more. It's like someone f...ing your missus." According to his affidavit, when Sommers sent him a picture of a club function, Tinkler emailed him: "Where are all the topless chicks? We are male fukn chauvinists, mate ... how are we going to attract members? You need to watch the skulls - that is what we are trying to create." Tinkler told him to buy a Porsche 997 Turbo Cabriolet for the club, stating "... he wanted a car with no lid so that he could visit his beach houses". When the club ran short of money and Sommers asked Tinkler to honour his promise to provide working capital, he responded: "You are a c... asking for another $500,000. Getting the begging bowl out is pathetic and I don't give a shit what the contract says."

Tinkler is yet to pay the costs of trying - and failing - to obtain an injunction to stop Sommers publishing more lurid tales about him in his e-book. According to Carl Hagon of Clamenz Evans Ellis, the bill will come to about $18,000. But that is the least of Tinkler's worries. In another humiliating legal defeat in early August, a NSW Supreme Court judge gave him until September 1 to pay about $17 million to the property developer Mirvac - which he failed to do - to honour a contract to buy some industrial land at Newcastle as part of his plan to build a multibillion-dollar coal loader. The state government cancelled the project after its infrastructure supremo, the former premier Nick Greiner, described it as "bloody-minded nonsense", and Tinkler refused to pay up. Then there's the granddaddy of them all, an action by Hamish Collins, the former chief executive at Tinkler's Aston Resources, who claims he was dudded out of an equity partnership and is suing for $157 million.

There are, of course, two sides to every story - unfortunately Tinkler, unlike some of his enemies, declined an invitation for an interview. But if these actions succeed it will not just be a blow to his own wobbly finances, it will devastate his adopted city of Newcastle, which was once dubbed Tinklertown after he splurged millions of dollars buying the two local footy clubs, the Newcastle Jets soccer team and the Newcastle Knights rugby league team. Many locals believe the purchases were an attempt by Tinkler to win over public opinion for his controversial coal loader, and that once the project was rejected he lost interest in sport and was on the move again - from Singapore to Hawaii, where he has reportedly splashed out $15 million on a beachfront mansion in a friend's name. Meanwhile, back in Newcastle, there were reports that his struggling Knights, once again drubbed out of a place in the NRL finals, were having difficulty paying their bills and had requested an extension of time to lodge their accounts.

Which would come as no surprise to Phil Lellman, Andrew Bowcock, Anthony Cummings, Tim Sommers or any of the dozens of other creditors that Tinkler has spurned over the years. His attitude is best summed up by a comment he made to Sommers as the Supercar Club headed for the cliff: "Where is my $2.2 million? If this business needs $2 mil every six months then I am f...ing out."



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/boom-and-bust-20120910-25n30.html#ixzz26ScITVrw

Move on Tinkler companies over failed deal

By IAN KIRKWOOD and DONNA PAGE Sept. 8, 2012, 4 a.m.
NATHAN TINKLER

.PROPERTY company Mirvac will ask the Supreme Court on Monday to seize assets worth $17million from Nathan Tinkler companies over a failed property deal at Steel River.
See your ad hereThe section of law being used by Mirvac also allows it to ask the court to appoint a receiver to the Tinkler companies.

The court action is one of a number of financial pressures facing the self-made magnate, whose wealth has shrunk in recent months over debt worries and falling coal prices.
The Mirvac action places further pressure on one of Newcastle’s best known developers, Buildev, which was included in the Steel River deal as security for the Tinkler company, Ocean Street Holdings Trust.

The Tinkler camp had wanted the land as part of a rail corridor to reach the former BHP steelworks site, where Mr Tinkler had plans to build a coal-loader.

When the coal-loader failed to go ahead, Ocean Street did not complete the purchase of the now unneeded site and Mirvac took Supreme Court action.

Mirvac won a judgment on August 1 that gave the Tinkler companies until September 1 to pay an amount Mirvac said came to $17million with interest.

Buildev began in Raymond Terrace in the early 1990s and grew rapidly to become one of the best known development companies in the Hunter.

The group includes construction arm Bolkm and Castle Quarry Products.
More than 20 staff have left the group in the past year.

Despite linking with Mr Tinkler in 2008, the Buildev group has struggled recently, as Newcastle Herald reports about the Tinkler group’s financial problems have shown.
Mr Tinkler is Buildev’s largest individual shareholder with just under 50per cent.
Despite speculation, Mr Tinkler’s spokesman denied industry rumours the company was on the verge of going into voluntary administration.

Buildev is due to return to the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, when Mirvac will seek an urgent hearing to have its judgment enforced.

If the Tinkler camp does not finish the sale as ordered last month by the court, Mirvac wants court approval to seize assets to the value of $17million as compensation.

If it completes the sale, it will be left with a block of land it no longer needs for the purpose it originally wanted and would probably be worth less than the $17million the court has ordered paid.

The Herald understands Buildev, which has land in Medowie, Cooranbong, Old Bar and several locations in Queensland, has been trying to raise funds by off-loading property.
The group’s largest asset is a major parcel of land at North Richmond, where an aged-care facility and independent living homes, are being built by a joint partner.

A Mirvac spokesman said the matter would go before a registrar on Monday but Mirvac would seek to have it referred to a duty judge.

Mirvac is taking action under Section 40.2 of the state’s Uniform Civil Procedures Rules, which pertain to the enforcing of court judgments.

This section allows a judgment to be enforced by appointing a ‘‘receiver of the income of the property of the person bound by the judgment’’ or by sequestration of the property of the person bound by the judgment’’.

Cash-flow crisis conjecture still

THE past few weeks have been nothing but tough for former billionaire Nathan Tinkler.
Speculation continues to mount about the mining magnate’s financial future following a series of missed payments and a growing list of creditors seeking money from his Hunter companies.

Weaker commodity prices and falling share prices have combined to shrink Mr Tinkler’s wealth, partly due to the falling value of his 21per cent stake in Whitehaven Coal.
The former Hunter electrician turned coal baron, who made his money from a series of shrewd coalmine acquisitions, has been under fire with speculation increasing of a major cash flow crisis.

The Newcastle Herald reported last month that dozens of creditors from Melbourne to Queensland were seeking payment from Tinkler-linked companies Bolkm, Buildev, Patinack Farm and Hunter Sports Group.

The Newcastle Knights and Jets had failed to pay doctors for treatment of players and superannuation payments to staff were late earlier this year. It is also understood the Australian Tax Office is investigating Mr Tinkler’s racing empire, Patinack Farm, for failure to pay superannuation since November.

The full extent of Mr Tinkler’s debt is not known, but the Sydney Morning Herald has speculated his maximum liability could be as high as $638million, although his spokesman said the figure was ‘‘a mere fraction’’ of that amount.

Mr Tinkler’s wealth, estimated at $1.13billion last September, has copped a battering in the past few months with Whitehaven’s share price peaking at $5.58 in April, but slumping to $3.10 yesterday.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported last month that Mr Tinkler’s Whitehaven shares – worth $1.18billion in April – were valued at $657million on August 25. That equated to losing $4million a day.

See your ad hereMr Tinkler, who moved from Newcastle to Singapore in June, was forced to pull his $5.3billion bid to privatise Whitehaven last month because of financing issues.
Queensland coal explorer Blackwood is pursuing Mr Tinkler in the courts for $28.4million owed from a promised equity placement.

Mr Tinkler failed to sell his racing empire for $200million, which is apparently about a $100million loss on the amount he has pumped into the sport.
Mr Tinkler reportedly pays about $500,000 a week to run the racing operation.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/310634/move-on-tinkler-companies-over-failed-deal/?cs=305

HAS the young businessman affectionately known as "the Whale" finally beached?
That was the question yesterday as new creditors came out of the woodwork trying to extract money owed by former Newcastle electrician turned mining entrepreneur Nathan Tinkler - a man who at his peak was worth a reported $1.1 billion.
Tinkler's extensive coal, property, rugby league and horseracing empire edged closer to the brink of collapse after Queensland coal explorer Blackwood confirmed it would pursue Tinkler in the courts for $28.4 million owed from a promised equity placement.
The giant Mirvac property group also confirmed yesterday that it was taking Tinkler's Buildev group to court to recover $17 million from a failed property deal over industrial land at Newcastle, which was to have been part of a failed coal shipping terminal.
At the same time there were calls yesterday for Tinkler cash from people associated with his racing empire, Patinack Farm, surrounding merchants near his stables in Queensland and his precious Newcastle Knights National Rugby League team.
Tinkler became the owner of the Knights last year, and was hailed as the club's financial saviour, with his dollars helping lure Wayne Bennett from the Dragons to coach the team.
Tinkler's Patinack Farms are believed to have run up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debts in Canungra and Beaudesert.
One business owner - who is owed thousands, but did not wish to be named because he still hoped to recover some of his money - described the situation as "a nightmare".
"It would go for three or four months without paying bills and then the business would shut his account and he would just go somewhere else and do it all again," said one local trader.
"When he first came in to town, everyone thought he was a hero and we were all going to get steady income out of him. But it has been a nightmare."
It is believed several contractors who worked on the Patinack Farms estate are still waiting to be paid months after finishing their work.
Patinack management did not return calls to The Courier-Mail yesterday. Tinkler was in Singapore and not returning calls to his mobile.
His Sydney spokesman Tim Allerton of City PR said he had "no comment to make" and doubted he would be saying anything further later this week.
His reluctance to talk comes as a growing number of investors, staff and creditors are becoming increasingly concerned about his financial credentials. Nathan Tinkler burst on to the Queensland corporate scene in 2008.
He made his money in 2007 when he and his father Les sold their Bowen Basin mines to Macarthur Coal for $275 million.
He floated his major company Aston Resources in August 2010, although the bourse debut was less than spectacular.
His major investment today is his 21 per cent stake in Whitehaven Coal, a stake that accounts for the bulk of his wealth but which has lost more than 40 per cent of its value since an April merger with Aston Resources and his private Boardwalk Resources.
He tried unsuccessfully to privatise Whitehaven in an ambitious $5.25 billion deal which never got off the ground. A slump in coal prices has also impacted on Tinkler who has substantial debts secured against his stake in Whitehaven stake.
"Everything is leveraged," one analyst said last night of his worsening plight.



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/companies/queensland-coal-explorer-blackwood-to-pursue-nathan-tinkler-in-courts-for-284-million/story-fnda1bsz-1226465031019#ixzz25XLMXeSr

Tinkler edges closer to brink over $17m deal

DateSeptember 4, 2012
.
Nathan Tinkler owns 21 per cent of Whitehaven Coal, a stake that accounts for the bulk of his wealth but which has lost more than 40 per cent of its value since April.
COAL baron Nathan Tinkler yesterday edged closer to the brink of financial disaster after failing to comply with a court order to pay Mirvac about $17 million to settle a property deal.

Two of Mr Tinkler's private companies agreed to buy an industrial site in Newcastle from Mirvac in July 2011 but failed to settle after the New South Wales government knocked back his plans for a fifth coal export terminal at Mayfield.

Mirvac sued and on August 1 the Supreme Court of NSW ordered Tinkler's Ocean Street Holdings and guarantor the Buildev Group to complete the purchase, stipulating an effective deadline of 5pm yesterday. A spokesman for Mirvac yesterday said despite the court order, ''settlement did not take place''.

''Mirvac intends to pursue its rights in relation to this matter to ensure that effect is given to the court's orders and that the contract for the sale is completed.''

A senior commercial litigation lawyer said such judgment debts could be enforced in several ways, but the most common option in the case of a corporate debtor was to seek liquidation. The company's assets could also be seized by obtaining a court order. It would be up to Mirvac to decide whether to pursue the debt, the lawyer said.

Mr Tinkler, who moved his family to Singapore in June, declined to comment yesterday.

It is the second payment deadline missed by Mr Tinkler after his Mulsanne Resources failed last month to pay a promised $28 million to take up shares in listed junior coal explorer Blackwood Corporation. On Friday, Blackwood told the stock exchange it had ''commenced the process [of] exercising its legal rights against Mulsanne'' and would continue to investigate its options to seek recovery of the amounts outstanding.

Mr Tinkler, whose wealth was estimated at $915 million by BRW in May, has endured speculation about his financial position after the non-payment to Blackwood and the failure of a $5.3 billion bid to buy listed miner Whitehaven Coal, for $5.20 a share.

Mr Tinkler owns 21 per cent of Whitehaven, a stake that accounts for the bulk of his wealth but which has lost more than 40 per cent of its value since an April merger with Aston Resources and his private Boardwalk Resources.

Coal prices have slumped since the merger, putting pressure on Mr Tinkler, who is known to have substantial debts secured against his stake in Whitehaven and other assets, including his horseracing stud, Patinack Farm.

The full extent of Mr Tinkler's debts has not been confirmed but corporate filings indicate his maximum liability may be as high as $638 million, although his spokesman said the true figure was ''a mere fraction'' of that amount.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/tinkler-edges-closer-to-brink-over-17m-deal-20120903-25agm.html#ixzz25Ro5nOTH
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Read the full story and experience a perhaps slightly wistful schadenfreude at http://www.smartcompany.com.au/wealth/051418-nathan-tinkler-and-the-10-money-pits-that-trip-up-the-rich/2.html