Billionaire Palmer loses fight for quick cash from China's CITIC
By Morag MacKinnon
PERTH (Reuters) - Australian billionaire Clive Palmer lost a bid on Monday to get China's CITIC Ltd <0267.HK> to pay him a $48 million(31.87 million pounds) advance on disputed royalties he says the Chinese company owes him from its Australian iron ore project.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled against Palmer, with a judge citing the dire financial state of the billionaire's Queensland Nickel business as one element influencing his decision.
"I am not satisfied on the evidence ... that the stark alternatives, namely grant the injunction or let Queensland Nickel suffer dire consequences, reflect an assessment of all options that one would expect to be considered when a major business is experiencing financial difficulties," Judge Paul Allan Tottle wrote in his decision.
Palmer's company Mineralogy urgently needs the royalties to save his unrelated Queensland Nickel business, which his lawyer said faced a "worse than perilous" situation.
CITIC had in 2006 bought the rights to its Sino Iron project from Palmer's Mineralogy for $415 million in 2006 and agreed to pay royalties once production started.
But the two companies have been fighting a series of court cases over how much is owed and the long-running case is due to be heard again by the court in late 2016.
CITIC's lawyer questioned how Mineralogy could request part payment of a royalty when the amount owed was in long-term dispute and said the claim that Queensland Nickel would have to shut by Tuesday was ludicrous.
"Why would you do that unless you have explored all the possibilities?" CITIC's lawyer Charles Scerri told the court.
Mineralogy's lawyer Simon Couper, however, said Australia's four major banks and Suncorp had rejected requests for a loan.
CITIC's lawyer questioned how a company with a A$1.9 billion ($1.4 billion) balance sheet and A$23 million in debt could not secure funding, and said the argument that Queensland Nickel could not be saved "defies belief".
"For all we know this money may go toward building Titanic II," Scerri told the court, referring to Palmer's plan to build a replica of the Titanic.
Queensland Nickel is one of the Australia's biggest nickel refineries with a capacity of 35,000 tonnes a year.
A slump in the nickel price from just over $13 a pound in early 2011 to $4.12 a pound amid a mounting supply glut has put pressure on many producers of the metal, which is used to make stainless steel.
(Editing by Tom Hogue)
