Dairy giant to be liquidated
Beston Global Food will be liquidated after administrators failed to find a buyer for the dairy company which was discovered to have potentially been trading while insolvent since April last year.
Administrators KPMG placed Beston Global Food into liquidation on Monday, having failed to find a buyer for the beleaguered dairy business which collapsed late last year.
KPMG was appointed administrator in September after a divestment of its meat processing subsidiary failed to prop the company up.
At the time, the company said it had received “several” non-binding indicative offers around refinancing and equity solutions for the business, including an offer from Japanese Megmilk Snow Brands for the acquisition of its Jervois facility and business.
However, Beston said Megmilk had advised on September 20, the same day administrators were appointed, that they would not proceed with its previous offer following extensive due diligence.
At the time, the company had 159 staff, including 29 casuals.
ASIC records show the company was wound up on Monday, 24 February 2025.
A voluntary administrators report dated 13 February shows KPMG discovered that Beston Global Good “may have been insolvent from at least 4 April 2024”.
“Given the extent of losses incurred in prior periods, the date of insolvency may be earlier and would be subject to further and more detailed investigation which would be undertaken by a liquidator,” KPMG said.
The administrators confirmed that its attempts to sell the business failed and they did not receive a binding offer for the business or a proposal for a deed of company arrangement (DOCA) capable of acceptance for the sale of the business as a going concern, not for a restructure of the dairy company via a DOCA.
“We note that several parties requested additional time to conduct due diligence and/or seek funding prior to submitting a binding offer or proposal,” KPMG said.
“Due to ongoing trading losses being incurred, and limited funding available to the Administrators in which to fund operations, further extensions of time were not possible beyond 30 November 2024.”
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The business underwent an orderly wind down on 26 November, preceding the asset sale process.
Priority employee creditors are set to receive 100 cents in the dollar from the liquidation of the business, while secured creditors of Beston Pure Dairies will receive between 26 to 34 cents in the dollar and Beston Global Food Company secured creditors will receive between zero to 0.06 cents in the dollar.
Liquidators – also KPMG – will now undertake further investigations into the company given they have more extensive powers than the administrators.
This includes claims over unfair preference and other voidable transactions in excess of $7.4 million, an insolvent trading claim and unreasonable director-related transactions.
