Media Options site not inactive for long as Sureprint takes up facilities
The Datta family is attempting to wrest back control of its failed Media Options business, putting forward a rival offer to acquire the company, in competition with trade printer CMYKhub. The administrator says the offer, made by Sureprint, run by Amrit Chandra, sister-in-law of former Media Options owner Bhaskar Datta, ‘may give more back to the employees.’ Administrator David Iannuzzi from Veritas Advisory will call a meeting of creditors for mid-August, where he will present both bids.
Bhaskar Datta
Media Options collapsed with $3.3m in debts last September, and has been trading under a controversial $1000 a month license through the Datta family businesses Sureprint and Sydney Print Hub since entering administration, according to Veritas to protect the value of the business for the benefit of creditors. Iannuzzi says if the creditors resolve to accept the CMYKhub offer, Veritas will begin proceedings to evict Sureprint and Sydney Print Hub from facilities and order them to relinquish the assets and intellectual property. CMYKhub says Veritas has already said it will don this twice before, but has so far failed to do so. The Sureprint business was set up 19 days before Media Options collapsed, and together with Sydney Print Hub – which also has Datta family members as sole directors – has been effectively running the Media Options business under the $1000 licensing deal. Denholm says the CMYKhub bid has the support of the creditors committee, but Iannuzzi says it only appeals to ‘a faction of the creditors’. Denholm and CMYKhub paid a $50,000 deposit to buy the business back in February, but has since been thwarted in its attempts to make the sale go through. However Iannuzzi says the agreement had ‘a lot of conditions attached to it’ and was more about making sure Denholm was ‘fair dinkum’ by putting up some cash as a deposit.
Clive Denholm
Denholm says one of the conditions was that the administrator get all the assets of the business out of the hands of Sureprint and Sydney Print Hub, including a Heidelberg press that has allegedly been transferred between the entities. Denholm says he is not surprised by the latest move by Veritas, coming after more than six months of delays since CMYKhub signed that purchase contract in which the liquidator committed to take legal action to recover the assets within 14 days. He says the deal has encountered challenges from day one, including rumours of a sale to Sureprint prior to the business going into voluntary administration. He says, “We had a lot of trouble getting answers to questions to allow us to put in our bid with delays of over two weeks in getting response to emails. “Our bid was accepted by the creditor committee twice and despite receiving a commitment by the administrator to take action to recover the assets we have had nothing but delays. “We have serious concerns about the process and how it has been handled.” Iannuzzi says there has been some mediation with Sureprint but all legal action is on hold until after the meeting. The administrator defends his handling of the sale and denied he was favouring any side over the other. He says, “I have remained independent from the get-go. Whatever is thrown at me, be it from Sureprint or a hungry buyer, I have to send it to the creditors. “Both parties want the business and I am trying to play umpire in the middle. I am doing everything I can to keep all the stakeholders happy.”
David Iannuzzi
“I understand where Denholm is coming from, he wants to get this done and it is a top priority for him, but this has to be done right and like he says there have been some delaying tactics by Sureprint. “Things like this often take longer than all of us would like.” In October last year Iannuzzi denied accusations of phoenix activity from the Sureprint and Sydney Print Hub businesses, saying ASIC supported his view. The director of Sureprint, Amrit Chandra and Sydney Print Hub, and Rahul Rajeev Datta, Bhaskar Datta’s son, were unavailable for comment. Bhaskar Datta himself claims to be only a ‘consultant’ who ‘sometimes’ uses the offices at Sureprint.
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