A West Coast celebrity files a lawsuit to recover the former partner’s share of a fresh food business.
Following the demise of his business partner, former West Coast Eagles player Philip Matera has made a last-ditch effort to regain a half-share in his wholesale fruit and vegetable business. In 2019, Matera’s Abundance Produce Australia, an Aboriginal-owned fresh food wholesaler established in 2014, signed a partnership agreement with 35-year-old agribusiness Odeum Produce.
The business attracted a diverse clientele and secured profitable contracts in the government and resources sectors while working to increase the number of jobs available to Indigenous people.
However, the partnership encountered a roadblock in September when Odeum folded, leaving debts totaling $15 million as a result of declining sales and a botched reorganization.
The Hamilton Murphy Advisory team assigned Brett Orzel and Stephen Dixon the duty of organizing the company’s affairs and searching the market for a possible purchaser.
Due to the failure of those efforts, creditors decided to dissolve the business on December 28.
However, a writ filed this week in the West Australian Supreme Court has exposed the internal power struggle over its 49 percent ownership of Abundance Produce.
Abundance Produce is thought to be unaffected by the company’s failure, but the procedure for recovering its ownership of shares is regulated by a rigorous shareholder agreement.
In the event of its collapse, that agreement contained a clause allowing a partner to take control of the other’s stake, with an independent valuer determining its worth prior to transfer, according to the lawsuit filed by majority owner Matera.
Matera says he sent out a notice of election to buy Odeum’s shares in the joint venture, as allowed by the agreement, less than two weeks after Odeum went bankrupt.
Matera claimed that the notice sparked a ten-day negotiation process amongst the Abundance board members, who were unable to reach a consensus regarding the appointment of an impartial valuer.
He asked the head of Chartered Accountants Australia to step in, but the organization informed him that it was no longer nominating independent experts to mediate disputes over contracts.
He said that although the Odeum liquidators had approved a contract variation allowing for the appointment of an additional authority on February 2, they had not formally approved the move.
Matera filed a request with the court last week to force Odeum’s liquidators to take action and to support the appointment of a new, independent share valuer.
Matera stated he couldn’t comment because the dispute process was still in progress.
