GUPTA FIRMS RESCUE
Swiss shell company Charles King launches legal bid for Optimum
The business rescue practitioner working to stabilise and sell Gupta-owned mines and operations is facing the 44th legal bid for 2018 to scupper its efforts, this time from Swiss shell company Charles King. One of the assets in question is the Optimum Coal mine and terminal, which was central to former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s state of capture report. It detailed how, under the tumultuous tenure of former president Jacob Zuma, Eskom officials forced the sale of Optimum by Glencore and then helped the politically connected Gupta family to buy it. Business rescue, a provision of the Companies Act, aims to rehabilitate financially distressed companies. The three companies under Tegeta Exploration and Resources — Optimum Coal Mine, Optimum Coal Terminal and Koornfontein Mines — were forced into rescue after banks refused to provide them with banking accounts. The commission of inquiry into state capture this week heard how bank executives were pressured by former mineral resou...
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