[miningmx.com] – ADMINISTRATORS for Glencore’s Optimum unit in South Africa “strongly dispute” a penalty state-owned utility Eskom expects its new owners to pay after the mining complex was placed in bankruptcy protection, said Bloomberg News.
Tegeta Exploration & Resources, the South African company owned by the Gupta family and a venture fund in which President Jacob Zuma’s son is an investor, has been recommended by South Africa’s Competition Commission to be allowed to buy Optimum as long as it doesn’t cut jobs, said the newswire.
Glencore placed the company in bankruptcy protection, known locally as business-rescue proceedings, after Eskom refused to renegotiate a coal-supply deal.
“The Eskom penalty of $133m imposed in July 2015 remains a contingent liability of Optimum,” which it “strongly disputes,” Louise Brugman, a spokeswoman for Optimum’s business rescuers, told Bloomberg News.
On finalisation of the deal, the rescuers “expect that Tegeta will continue to dispute the penalty and therefore there will be no immediate need for Tegeta to settle the penalty,” she said.
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