00:00Sebastian Hands, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:05When you first saw the state of the steelworks, how surprised were you?
00:09I was quite shocked.
00:11Clearly very little maintenance has been done since we were last here.
00:15There are some significant issues that we need to address.
00:18For example, the traffic lights at the opening of the steelworks weren't working.
00:23I think that's just a really good example of some really fundamental maintenance and
00:27capex issues that we needed to address.
00:30Now it's the second time in 10 years that we've seen administration here at the steelworks.
00:34Is this still a viable operation?
00:36It's really challenging.
00:38The business has been losing a lot of money, particularly over the last 12 months.
00:42So look, there is a pathway to the future, but there's a significant number of capital
00:47expenditure items that we need to address in order to get the business on a solid footing
00:52going forward.
00:53Is this worse than when Quartermentha took over last time in 2016 after Arrium collapsed?
00:58Right at the moment it is worse.
01:00The upside is there is some clarity on what the future looks like.
01:04We've just got to get from A, the stabilisation phase that we're in now, and transition into
01:09that next phase, the capital expenditure phase.
01:12And how hard do you think it will be to find a buyer?
01:15It's going to be challenging.
01:16But that said, we're really blessed and very lucky and grateful to the state government
01:21and the federal government.
01:23The governments have collectively committed $2.4 billion.
01:27So that is going to be a material advantage to us in finding a buyer.
01:32That gives a buyer confidence that the government is behind us, and that'll be really important
01:37to us going forward.
01:39And what sort of interest have you had so far?
01:41Look, we've had interest.
01:43I think we've had upwards of 10 interested parties.
01:46But that said, look, it's early doors.
01:48You get a lot of emails from people who perhaps might not be around at the back end of the
01:53process.
01:54We know who's interested in this.
01:56You know, there's domestic players, there's international players.
01:58This is a big piece of expenditure.
02:01So it's not going to be a fly-by-night operator.
02:03It's going to be a really established steelmaker.
02:06Is Blue Scope still one of those?
02:08I would hope Blue Scope would be absolutely part of that process.
02:11Last time, staff did have to take a pay cut.
02:13Is that something that's on the cards this time?
02:15That's not something we're entertaining at the moment.
02:17Cordomantha were administrators in 2016 when Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance was selected
02:22to take it over.
02:24In hindsight, was that a mistake?
02:26No.
02:27We did our due diligence at that point in time.
02:29When we sold this business to Mr Gupta back in 2017, we did our due diligence.
02:34We went through that process.
02:36What has transpired in the last eight years, nine years, has happened.
02:41And just finally, what is your message for the workers here and for Wayala?
02:45How confident can they be moving forwards?
02:48There's two messages I would give to both our employees and our subcontractors, both
02:52here in Wayala, out at the mines.
02:55We're in a situation where we are only here by virtue of their work.
02:59So my first message to them is thank you.
03:02The gratitude that we can display towards you is real and should be really acknowledged
03:08across the community.
03:09The second piece is we're going through this stabilisation phase.
03:13And when I say we, it's the entire community.
03:15It's the community of Wayala.
03:17All of our employees, the employees of the subcontractors, it's going to be a tough period.
03:21But what we have committed to everyone is we'll keep you engaged and we'll keep you
03:25informed on this journey.
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