Application under s 442C
42 As stated earlier, on 30 April 2020, the plaintiffs filed an urgent application under s 442C(2)(c) of the Act, seeking leave from the Court to dispose of all intellectual property used or in the possession of Sargon Services (including any such intellectual property that is owned by Sargon Capital, subject to any security interest of Taiping, or owned by GrowthOps) and such property of the Sargon VA entities as is (or may be) subject to a security interest (including under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth)).
43 Relevantly, s 442C provides as follows:
When administrator may dispose of encumbered property
(1) The administrator of a company under administration or of a deed of company arrangement must not dispose of:
(a) property of the company that is subject to a security interest; or
(b) property (other than PPSA retention of title property) that is used or occupied by, or is in the possession of, the company but of which someone else is the owner or lessor.
Note: PPSA retention of title property is subject to a PPSA security interest, and so is covered by paragraph (a) (see definition of PPSA retention of title property in section 51F).
(2) Subsection (1) does not prevent a disposal:
(a) in the ordinary course of the company's business; or
(b) with the written consent of the secured party, owner or lessor, as the case may be; or
(c) with the leave of the Court.
(3) The Court may only give leave under paragraph (2)(c) if satisfied that arrangements have been made to protect adequately the interests of the secured party, owner or lessor, as the case may be.
…
(7) If:
(a) a company is under administration or is subject to a deed of company arrangement; and
(b) property of the company is subject to a security interest; and
(c) the administrator disposes of the property;
the disposal extinguishes the security interest.
44 A number of matters can be noted about section 442C.
45 First, the section operates to limit the powers of an administrator to dispose of property of the company under administration that is subject to a security interest or property that is used or occupied by, or is in the possession of, the company under administration but of which someone else is the owner or lessor (other than PPSA retention of title property).
46 Second, the section gives the Court power, by the grant of leave under s 442C(2)(c), to authorise an administrator to dispose of such property. That power involves a significant intrusion on third party security interests and property rights, authorising an administrator to dispose of property that is owned by, or encumbered in favour of, a third party. None of the interested parties in this proceeding suggested that the words had a meaning other than their plain meaning. The expression "security interest" is defined in s 51A of the Act as a PPSA security interest or a charge, lien or pledge. The expression "PPSA security interest" is defined in s 51 of the Act as a security interest within the meaning of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) and to which that Act applies, other than a transitional security interest within the meaning of that Act.
47 Third, the Court's power to grant such leave is subject to the condition that the Court must be satisfied that arrangements have been made to protect adequately the interests of the secured party, owner or lessor, as the case may be. The administrator bears the onus of establishing that condition: Re Le Meilleur Pty Ltd (2011) 256 FLR 240 at [365]. Arrangements "to protect adequately the interests of the secured party, owner or lessor" would ordinarily contemplate arrangements seeking to obtain the best available return for the property being disposed of and the payment of such amounts to the security interest holder, owner or lessor in a manner that is consistent with the principles found in Part 5.3A of the Act, recognising the prior interests of the security interest holder, owner or lessor as the case may be. If that cannot be achieved, the Court may not be satisfied that the condition stated in s 442C(3) can be fulfilled. Arrangements of that kind were approved in Re Rewards Projects Ltd (administrators appointed) [2010] WASC 394 (see at [16]), Re Renovation Boys Pty Ltd (administrators appointed) [2014] NSWSC 340 (see at [42]) and Re Luxtown Pty Ltd (administrators appointed) [2019] FCA 1861 (Luxtown) (see at [28]).
48 Fourth, if the Court is satisfied that arrangements have been made to protect adequately the interests of the secured party, owner or lessor, the Court's discretion under s 442C(2)(c) is otherwise unconstrained. However, the discretionary power must be exercised judicially by reference to considerations relevant to its exercise, particularly the objects of Part 5.3A. In that regard, s 435A provides that:
The object of this Part, and Schedule 2 to the extent that it relates to this Part, is to provide for the business, property and affairs of an insolvent company to be administered in a way that:
(a) maximises the chances of the company, or as much as possible of its business, continuing in existence; or
(b) if it is not possible for the company or its business to continue in existence - results in a better return for the company's creditors and members than would result from an immediate winding up of the company.
49 Reflecting the objects of Part 5.3A, in Mentha v GE Capital Ltd (1997) 27 ACSR 696, Finkelstein J considered that the Court should also consider whether the disposition will prejudice the interests of other creditors or the interests of the company under administration, while recognising that the occasion for such prejudice will not often arise in the case of the disposition of secured property (at 700-701).
50 Mr Austin QC placed reliance on statements of Lehane J in Hamilton and Fiorentino as Administrators of Kisoro Pty Ltd v National Australia Bank Ltd (1996) 66 FCR 12 (Kisoro) at 32, in respect of a similarly worded power conferred on the Court under s 444F(3) of the Act. In Kisoro, Lehane J approved the following principles to guide the exercise of the Court's discretion: a chargee should be permitted to exercise proprietary rights where to do so would not impede the achievement of the purposes for which the administration was commenced; in other cases, the legitimate interests of the chargee must be balanced against the legitimate interests of the other creditors of the company; and, in carrying out the balancing exercise, great weight must be given to the proprietary interests of the chargee and, so far as possible, the administration procedure should not be used to prejudice those who were secured creditors when administration commenced in lieu of liquidation.
51 While those statements of principle have relevance to the exercise of the Court's discretion under s 442C(2)(c), their expression in Kisoro derives from the specific statutory language and context of s 444F, which differs from s 442C(2)(c). In particular, s 444F applies where a company has executed a deed of company arrangement and a secured creditor of the company wishes to realise or deal with its security interest, or the owner or lessor of property that is used or occupied by, or is in the possession of, the company wishes to take possession of or recover the property. Under s 444F, the Court may order the secured creditor or owner or lessor of property not to so act if satisfied that so acting would have a material adverse effect on achieving the purposes of the deed and, having regard to the terms of the deed, the terms of the Court's order and any other relevant matter, the interests of the secured creditor, owner or lessor will be adequately protected. Thus, the Court's power under s 444F is to restrain a secured creditor from exercising its security and a property owner from taking possession of or recovering its property in circumstances where a deed of company arrangement has been entered into. The section stipulates that the Court may only restrain the secured creditor or property owner to prevent a material adverse effect on the purposes of the deed of company arrangement. The power in s 442C(2)(c) is more broadly framed. If the Court is satisfied of the condition in s 442C(3), the Court's discretion is enlivened and is to be exercised having regard to the objects of Part 5.3A more broadly.
52 As noted earlier, none of Westpac, GrowthOps or Diversa and OneVue opposed the plaintiff's application. However, the application was opposed by Sargon Capital and its secured creditor Taiping. Thus the dispute was largely focussed on Sargon Capital's claimed ownership of the intellectual property proposed to be sold and whether its interests would be adequately protected by the proposed arrangements. That question necessarily involved consideration of the respective positions of the other interested parties, as well as creditors more generally.
53 The plaintiffs submitted that the Court should grant leave under s 442C(2)(c) for the following reasons:
(a) doubt existed as to the ownership of the intellectual property that was proposed to be sold pursuant to the Cloverhill Sale;
(b) the parties claiming to have interests in the intellectual property had been unable to reach agreement in relation to the proposed sale and allocation of proceeds;
(c) the lack of agreement imperilled the proposed sale, an outcome that would be materially adverse to the interests of all creditors of the Sargon VA entities; and
(d) the orders being sought from the Court would preserve the sale proceeds in order that the claims of all interested parties over the assets to be sold could be subsequently determined.
54 In the originating process filed on 30 April 2020, the plaintiffs proposed that two sums would be immediately paid out of the sale proceeds. The first sum was an amount of $16 million which the plaintiffs had agreed to pay Westpac in return for the release of its security interests to enable the sale to proceed. The second was an amount of $400,000 which Cloverhill had agreed to pay to the Decimal entities for assets being purchased from those entities. The payment of those sums would leave an amount of $13.6 million for payment to the other interested parties, including Sargon Capital, and creditors of the Sargon VA entities, subject to determination of their respective interests in the property to be sold. During the hearing on 30 April 2020, consideration was given to a modification to the orders being sought, such that Westpac would not receive an immediate payment from the sale proceeds but would have its interests determined together with the other interested parties and creditors. Westpac gave its consent to that modification and that became the proposal advanced by the plaintiffs at the resumed hearing on 1 May 2020. The result was that, out of the sale proceeds of $30 million, $29.6 million was proposed to be retained in a fund for payment to the interested parties, including Sargon Capital, and creditors of the Sargon VA entities, subject to determination of their respective interests in the property to be sold. The payment of $400,000 to the Decimal entities would still proceed because that amount reflected a separate agreement between Cloverhill and the Decimal entities for the purchase of specific assets owned by those entities.
55 The orders sought by the plaintiffs contemplated that the sale proceeds (less $400,000) would be deposited into a separate controlled, interest-bearing monies account opened and to be maintained by the plaintiffs, and would only be accessed or disbursed by the plaintiffs in accordance with an order or direction of the Court. The proceeds would be retained for the purpose of meeting claims that any interested party or creditor had in respect of the property of the Sargon VA entities and its subsidiaries and/or the intellectual property directly or indirectly sold pursuant to the Cloverhill Sale including (but not limited to):
(a) any claim by the plaintiffs to recover amounts in respect of remuneration, fees and expenses properly incurred in their capacity as voluntary administrators of the Sargon VA entities;
(b) claims of Westpac, including its rights under security interests registered on the PPSR prior to completion of the Cloverhill Sale;
(c) any claim that Sargon Capital, Taiping and/or GrowthOps may have to recover amounts by reference to a claimed interest in, or in respect of, the intellectual property; and
(d) any claim that Diversa or OneVue may have pursuant to any equitable lien or other security interest over the shares held by Sargon Holdings and Sargon SPV in Diversa Trustees and CCSL.
56 The orders proposed a timetable for the resolution of competing claims by the Court. In that regard, it was proposed that the plaintiffs and all interested parties and creditors would file and serve any notice of claim in respect of the retained sale proceeds which must identify the nature of the claim, the assets sold pursuant to the Cloverhill Sale in respect of which the claim is made and the amount claimed, and must subsequently file material in support. The adjudication of competing claims would require the fair and equitable allocation and apportionment of the sale proceeds across the assets sold in a manner that would enable the previous security and ownership rights and interests to be valued. Once that was done, it would be necessary to determine competing claims in respect of the same assets, particularly in the case of the intellectual property.
57 The plaintiffs submitted that the above arrangements would adequately protect the interests of secured parties and owners of the property being sold for the following reasons:
(a) There was no apparent prospect of the value of the intellectual property being realised other than via the sale transaction. The plaintiffs' assessment was that the value of the intellectual property, if not sold via the proposed sale transaction, would be negligible.
(b) By preserving the sale proceeds, the interests of parties with claims over the intellectual property would be protected (albeit that the assets over which their claims are made would have a different character, having been converted to a fund).
(c) The quantum of the sale proceeds to be retained will be significant, particularly when compared with the value attributed to the intellectual property in Sargon Capital's balance sheet.
(d) The plaintiffs' assessment was that the date for completion of the sale transaction cannot be extended. Non-completion of the sale transaction was likely to result in the operating subsidiaries ceasing to carry on business, with adverse consequences for all creditors of the Sargon VA entities and the entities claiming interests in the intellectual property that is used in those businesses.
58 Sargon Capital and Taiping submitted that their interests, as owners of the intellectual property, were not adequately protected by the proposed sale and orders. They argued that there had been no formal and separate valuation or expert assessment of value of the intellectual property, taking into account any questions of intermingling of ownership and the like. The intellectual property had not been separately marketed by the plaintiffs and the receivers to Sargon Capital had not received sufficient information to undertake any such exercise themselves. The value of the intellectual property might be more or less than the book value recorded in Sargon Capital's balance sheet as at December 2019. They submitted that it would be a drastic outcome to deprive Sargon Capital and Taiping of their interest in the intellectual property in return for the speculative possibility that they might be able to extract a sum of any significant magnitude from the funds that would be the subject of competing claims. They submitted that because there is no certainty as to the amount that would be received by Sargon Capital from the sale proceeds, the Court was unable to be satisfied that the interests of Sargon Capital and Taiping would be adequately protected.
59 In my view, this is an appropriate case for the Court to give leave to the plaintiffs under s 442C(2)(c) of the Act, largely in the form of the revised orders provided to the Court by the plaintiffs, by which all of the proceeds of the proposed Cloverhill Sale will be retained to meet competing claims of the interested parties, save for an amount of $400,000 to be paid to the Decimal entities.
60 The application was made with urgency, but I am satisfied that the urgency was warranted. The evidence showed that the sale of the Sargon VA businesses was conditional on completion occurring on 1 May 2020. The parties to the sale could, of course, have extended that deadline by agreement, but the evidence indicated that completion had been deferred previously while negotiations with the third party interest holders occurred and the purchaser was, as at the date of the hearing, unwilling to defer completion any longer. The evidence also indicated that any extension could only be for a very short period in any event because of the parlous financial position of the Sargon VA businesses. On the evidence, granting leave would enable the Cloverhill Sale to proceed whereas any delay was likely to result in that sale not proceeding.
61 I am satisfied on the evidence before me:
(a) first, that a proper sale process had been conducted by the administrators for the Sargon VA businesses;
(b) second, that the administrators had accepted the highest offer for the businesses;
(c) third, that without a sale, the businesses would not be able to continue; and
(d) fourth, that because of the dispute over the ownership of the intellectual property, the sale could not be effected without the orders being sought by the plaintiffs.
62 The orders sought by the plaintiffs were in the nature of final relief and would affect the interests of Sargon Capital and Taiping in a very material way. If and to the extent the relevant intellectual property was owned by Sargon Capital, the orders had the effect of allowing the plaintiffs to sell Sargon Capital's property in the proposed transaction with Cloverhill, rather than allow Sargon Capital to deal with the property as it sees fit.
63 By s 442C(3), the Court may only give leave if satisfied that arrangements have been made to protect adequately the interests of the secured party, owner or lessor as the case may be. That is a precondition to the exercise of the Court's power to grant leave. While it is a precondition, the requirement is evaluative. The Court must evaluate whether the arrangements that are proposed will adequately protect those interests.
64 In the present case, Westpac, as the holder of security interests in certain of the assets proposed to be sold, Diversa and OneVue, also the holder of security interests in assets proposed to be sold, and GrowthOps, as a possible owner of intellectual property proposed to be sold, did not oppose leave being granted by the Court. The grant of leave was opposed by Sargon Capital and Taiping. They argued that the arrangements being proposed by the plaintiffs did not adequately protect their interests. They were concerned that the sale proceeds of approximately $30 million, when apportioned across the assets in respect of which different parties hold interests or claim to hold interests, would not enable Sargon Capital to recover the full value of its claimed ownership interest in the intellectual property. They were also concerned that the apportionment of the sale proceeds across the assets to be sold would be complex and uncertain, undermining their ability to receive full value for the intellectual property in which they claim interests. They argued that the sale of the intellectual property would deprive them of the opportunity to determine and realise the full value for the intellectual property.
65 Contrary to the arguments advanced by Sargon Capital and Taiping, I am satisfied that the arrangements proposed by the plaintiffs do adequately protect the interests of Sargon Capital and Taiping. That is for two primary reasons.
66 First, the intellectual property largely consists of software systems and domain names used in the businesses of the Sargon VA entities. In my view, selling those assets as part of the sale of the businesses in which the assets are being used was more likely to recover a higher value for the assets in comparison to a separate sale of the assets by Sargon Capital. That is due to the nature of the assets and the comparative circumstances in which they would be sold. Domain names have value in connection with the goodwill of the business in which they are used and typically have little value apart from the goodwill. Software used in businesses such as conducted by Sargon is functional, providing a business platform for the conduct of the business, and again typically has less value outside the business in which it has been deployed. If the Cloverhill Sale did not proceed, the evidence established that the underlying Sargon VA businesses would cease. Sargon Capital would then have to pursue the sale of the intellectual property assets as separate assets, when the underlying businesses in which the intellectual property was used had ceased. Further, any sale by Sargon Capital was likely to be delayed by disputes over the ownership of the intellectual property. I consider that the prospect of Sargon Capital realising a higher value for the intellectual property in those circumstances, in comparison to the plaintiffs' proposal, is remote.
67 The second reason that I am satisfied that the arrangements proposed by the plaintiffs adequately protect the interests of Sargon Capital is that the orders require the whole of the sale proceeds to be retained to meet competing claims, other than the payment of $400,000 to the Decima entities which reflects a separate agreement negotiated by Cloverhill with the Decimal entities relating to separate identified assets. As noted earlier, originally the plaintiffs proposed that only part of the proceeds of the sale would be retained to meet claims, with a payment of $16 million being made to Westpac on completion of the sale. However, it was ultimately proposed that the whole of the proceeds would be held, save for the Decimal payment. Under the proposed arrangements, the retained sale proceeds would not simply be apportioned across claimants according to the amount of their respective claims. Rather, the retained proceeds would be apportioned across the different asset classes in respect of which parties claim interests by reference to the relative value of each asset class to the sale proceeds. Once that allocation has been done, all persons who have claims in respect of each asset class will have that claim determined and receive their entitlement to the apportioned sale proceeds. The properly incurred expenses of the administrators will be deducted rateably across the asset classes, and the reasonableness of the expenses will also need to be established.
68 In my view, such arrangements adequately protect the interests of Sargon Capital and Taiping, and all other interested parties, by maximising the return on all of the assets owned or used in the Sargon VA businesses and then fairly and equitably apportioning the sale proceeds based on the different categories of interests held.
69 Being satisfied of the precondition in s 442C(3) of the Act, I am also satisfied that exercising my discretion to grant leave promotes the object of Part 5.3A in that it maximises the chances of the Sargon VA businesses continuing in existence, under new ownership, and also results in a better return for creditors and members than would be likely to result from a winding up.