The creditors of crashed trade print business Media Options, formerly owned by Bhaskar Datta, will finally choose a buyer for the company at a meeting on August 28 after months of failed deals and under the weight of a $3.3m debt. Despite a $430,000 offer from CMYKhub on the table, liquidators David Ianuzzi and Murray Godfrey from Veritas Advisory say they will recommend the creditors accept a $213,500 bid from a company owned by Datta’s sister-in-law. 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.
Bhaskar Datta
Sureprint, run by Datta’s daughter-in-law the previously unknown Amrit Chandra, has put forward the offer to buy the business in competition with CMYKhub. Should their offer be accepted, the Datta family will retain the business and effectively slough the multimillion dollar debt onto the rest of the print industry. Clive Denholm, owner of CMYKhub, says despite getting the go-ahead from creditors twice before, the latest report from liquidators shows that they “never had any intention of selling the business to a third party like us.” The Sureprint offer is a cash payment of $213,500 in 24 interest-free monthly instalments, meaning Sureprint will pay only $8895 a month. This compares to the CMYKhub offering of $180,000 (including $50,000 already paid months ago in a deposit) up front, plus 20 per cent of orders placed by former Media Options clients in the first six months after the sale, capped at $180,000, for a total of $360,000. Denholm says is if his offer is accepted, Sureprint would have to pay the $70,000 it owes Media Options – making the offer worth $250,000 up front and $430,000 in total.
Clive Denholm
Creditors have twice given the CMYKhub deal the green light, but have so far been unable to secure the sale. Third time round, the liquidators’ report leans towards the Sureprint bid. In their comparison of offers, the liquidators say the second $180,000 portion of the CMYKhub offer is ‘heavily dependent’ on the orders received by the company from former Media Options clients, meaning creditors could receive nothing if no orders are taken. Denholm says he is ‘very confident’ that the full $180,000 will be available to creditors and questions why the liquidators are painting his offer in such a bad light. The offer is also dependent on the liquidators obtaining a court order forcing Sureprint and Datta’s other related entity Sydney Print Hub, which has his son as sole director, to relinquish Media Options assets and intellectual property and stop trading with former clients – liquidators says this could end up in messy court action. At the meeting, Veritas will ask to be given up to $46,000 plus GST in additional fees. They also mentioned concerns that the Bankstown facility would be closed and staff would lose their jobs if CMYKhub is successful. Denholm says it is too early to tell if production will be continued there. A Fair Entitlement Guarantee claim is due to be paid to employees in the next two weeks. Employees are owed superannuation entitlements of $215,000 to $250,000.
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