TEMPO Holidays was yesterday formally placed into liquidation, with the company’s creditors voting in favour of a wind-up during a meeting at the InterContinental Melbourne.
Administrators Laurence Fitzgerald and Michael Humphris will continue as Joint and Several Liquidators of the collapsed business (TD 20 Sep), with the move allowing staff to access unpaid wages and annual leave payments through the government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) scheme.
Fitzgerald addressed the meeting, urging employees to register claims as soon as possible.
Although the scheme did not become available until yesterday’s vote to liquidate, the Administrators have already been working to compile and verify amounts owing so the process can be accelerated.
Fitzgerald said despite Tempo having about $1.7 million in a National Australia Bank account, the Administrators had been unable to access any funds because the bank was waiting to assess the amount of chargebacks it was receiving as a result of Tempo’s failure last month.
So far $349,000 in chargebacks had been received, he noted.
During the meeting he displayed a timeline of events leading up to the collapse of Tempo, alongside the plummeting Cox & Kings India share price, which has dropped from A$2.90 on 31 Mar to now be worth just 4c per share.
As well as the closure of Tempo, the company’s demise has seen the cessation of its operations in the USA (TD 16 Oct) and the resignation of its auditors and CFO in India in what Fitzgerald described as a “cascade of panic”.
He noted efforts to sell assets of the company in the UK were continuing, while locally negotiations continue with two interested parties regarding the purchase of Tempo assets including intellectual property, with expectations these deals will be finalised within two weeks.
The meeting also resolved to retain the Committee of Inspection comprising a range of parties including Tempo staff, Helloworld, Flight Centre, Express Travel Group and key suppliers.
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Source: traveldaily