The Tasmanian whisky distillery founded by bankrupt Queensland property developer Keith Batt has been sold to a private equity company. Australian Whisky Holdings (AWH) has bought Nant Distillery for $3million.
As part of the deal, the company will take on $5.5million worth of Nant debts and liabilities, after due diligence.
Nant's bars and hotel in Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane are not part of the sale.
AWH already has a 31.66% share of another Tasmanian whisky company, Lark Distillery – which owns the Overeem Distillery – and a 12% share of the Redlands Estate whisky distillery.
Lark Distillery chair Chris Malcolm will oversee the management of the Nant Distillery. He told The Hobart Mercury his role was “to uncover what has gone on in the past and to clean up the company and to grow it.”
He also encouraged creditors to “talk to us” about money owed. “It's the whisky business that is our focus and there’s some good whisky there.”
The sale ends a messy chapter in the downfall of Keith Batt.
Batt bought the historic Nant Estate in 2004 for $1million, spent "much more" to restore the historic flour mill on the property as a distillery, and started whisky production in 2008. In 2012 he opened Nant Whisky bars in Brisbane and Hobart, with plans for additional bars in Sydney, London, Berlin and Prague.
He also came up with an unorthodox scheme to fund the business, offering investors the chance to buy two barrels of whisky for $25,000 with a guarantee to buy it back at maturation, for $36,007 (an attractive 9.55% return on investment). During the four years of maturation, the barrels were to be stored in Nant's bonded warehouse, with each barrel numbered for the investor.
While the scheme was successful in attracting investors, his property company, Queensland Property Partners, was in freefall and being hunted by creditors.
He filed for personal bankruptcy earlier this year, with debts of $16.2 million.
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