A company which was set to provide satellite based
exploration services in Australia has entered court-appointed administration
with hundreds of millions in debt.
Newsat have experienced troubles with financier Ever Tycoon,
which put financing for the Jabiru-1 satellite in jeopardy, and last month
entered a trading halt.
Another lender, COFACE, has
withdrawn $209 million from the project.
Administrator PPB Advisory is now
in control of Newsat and will continue to operate the company.
Receivers McGrathNichol will take over Newsat and its
subsidiaries including Jabiru Satellite, Newsat Space Resources, and NSN
Holdings, SMH
reported.
Newsat Limited have filed for bankruptcy in the US state of
Delaware.
Real trouble began for Newsat when it was unable to pay
Lockheed Martin and Arianespace more than $26 million in overdue payments in January
for satellite construction and launching services.
Jabiru-1 was to be the only Australian-owned commercial satellite
in operation, which would have provided communications services to remote
Australia.
For the last two years Newsat has tried to drum up support
from the mining community at the Diggers and Dealers conferences in Kalgoorlie.
Company secretary William Abbott quit as company secretary
on Thursday after only three weeks in the role.