BCL Group
We advised the liquidator of the BCL group of companies on all aspects of this large and complex liquidation, the biggest in Botswana’s history, with potential creditors of US$1 billion. We oversaw the termination process of over 5,500 employees and we managed the care and maintenance programme and closure planning of two mines, one in Selebi-Phikwe and one Francistown. We worked across disciplines overseeing all aspects of the care and maintenance programme including engineering, environmental, geological, mining, security and risk. We provided litigation support, liaising with legal teams in multiple cross border disputes.
KFC
We managed the liquidation process of the group of companies that franchised KFC, the international fast food chain, in Botswana. We recommended that the best options for creditors was to continue to operate and we successfully oversaw the operations of 13 stores over a period of nine months ultimately selling the business as a going concern. We further recommended that the liquidator make an application to court to collapse the group of companies so that they could be wound up as one entity. This was probably the first time this course of action had been undertaken in Botswana.
Kentz Botswana
This was a complex liquidation, with the major debtors also being the major creditors. It involved the winding up of an international electrical and mechanical company undertaking engineering and construction work on a number of Government contracts. The company went into liquidation five days before Christmas and had numerous live contracts but it was an example of the petitioning creditor bringing a successful petition before matters had deteriorated too far. We were able to operate a division of the company and generate sufficient profits to pursue legal action against the major debtors resulting in a recovery of 100% for the preferent creditors and 66% for the concurrent creditors.
Leboam Holdings
We acted as the scheme administrator for a scheme of compromise with a creditors’ pool in excess of US$20million. The records of the company were incomplete and considerable work needed to be done to determine who were the creditors who were entitled to participate in the scheme and receive a distribution.
Barloworld Botswana
We were appointed as the joint liquidator to undertake the members’ voluntary liquidation of Barloworld Botswana, a solvent subsidiary of the Barloworld group (a leading global industrial company) that was undergoing a restructure.
Soda Ash Botswana
The liquidation of SAB was one of the largest, if not the largest, liquidation undertaken in Southern Africa at the time. We were appointed as a joint liquidator. The work undertaken included the management and control, in an isolated location, of a sophisticated chemical plant for a number of months, the marketing, regionally and internationally, of the company’s products, negotiating and finalising the complex sale of the business, plant and other assets to the new shareholders, and the implementation of the sale agreement. As a direct result of the foregoing none of the 800 employees lost their jobs. The new company, Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd, which acquired the assets from the liquidators as a going concern, has operated profitably since.