Creditors of the Gold Coast Blaze this morning voted in favour of a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) that effectively saves the embattled club from liquidation.
However, the DOCA is only the first step in getting the club back on the rails.
A deed of company arrangement is a binding arrangement between a company and its creditors governing how the company’s affairs will be dealt with, which may be agreed to as a result of the company entering voluntary administration. It aims to maximise the chances of the company, or as much as possible of its business, continuing, or to provide a better return for creditors than an immediate winding up of the company, or both.
Prior to the Blaze taking the next step in preparing to compete in the 2012/13 NBL season, the deed will need to be paid off.
The agreement specifies that unsecured creditors of the club will receive 7c in the dollar that they are owed, while secured creditors will receive 73c to the dollar.
Once the deed is paid off, the Blaze will regain control of their club and the focus will return to securing a investor.
The expectation had been the club would secure an equity partner, however administrator Ronald Robson said this did not eventuate in time for todays meeting,
“Discussions have been made with a number of investors,” Mr Robson said.
“Those discussions unfortunately were not able to be materialised fast enough in the process in which the administration has to run.
“Unfortunately we could not get a position fast enough for the investor in that time frame.”
The next step for the club would then be to employ staff after several were retrenched at the beginning of the voluntary administration.
It would be then that the club would be able to start preparing for the NBL season that will tip off in October.
