LPG dealer Autogas to be liquidated

LIQUID petroleum gas importer and dealer Autogas Namibia is to be liquidated because the company is insolvent.

A final order for the liquidation of Autogas Namibia has been granted in the High Court in Windhoek, four weeks after an order for the provisional winding-up of the company was given by Acting Judge Petrus Unengu on October 26.Two creditors of Autogas Namibia, Kulani Africa Gas and GQI Energy, initiated the legal proceedings for the liquidation of the company. Another three creditors – Walvis Bay-based businessman Rudolf Nechvile, a close corporation of Nechvile, Performance Motors CC, and Namcor Petroleum Trading and Distribution – on Friday last week joined the case in which the court was asked to order the liquidation of Autogas Namibia.Autogas Namibia did not oppose the liquidation application.Autogas’s clients include Government, with the company supplying liquid petroleum gas to the Namibian Defence Force and the Namibian Police.In an affidavit filed with the High Court it is alleged that Autogas owes Namcor Petroleum Trading and Distribution about N$770 000 for gas which the State-owned company had supplied to it.Kulani Africa Gas, which is a South African company that has also been supplying gas to Autogas, is claiming that Autogas is indebted to it to the tune of about N$431 392, and that Autogas’s bank account is currently overdrawn to the extent of about N$700 000.GQI Energy is claiming that Autogas is owing it more than N$4,5 million, which was money that it lent to the struggling company. GQI Energy, which at one stage was in talks to buy shares in Autogas Namibia, last year launched legal action against Autogas in an effort to recover the money it says it has lent the company.Autogas borrowed some N$4,5 million from the Development Bank of Namibia to set up its business in Namibia. That loan was later repaid with money provided by GQI Energy, the court was informed.Kulani Africa Gas is also claiming that Autogas owes TransNamib more than N$400 000 in rent, which is in arrears, and that the City of Windhoek has cut off Autogas’s water supply due to non-payment of its municipal accounts.Nechvile told the court in an affidavit that Autogas still owes Performance Motors CC more than N$86 500, plus interest calculated from April 2009, for an office which was supplied to the company.According to Nechvile, he has also lent Autogas more than N$1,4 million at a time that the company was experiencing cash-flow problems and was factually insolvent. That money has not been repaid to him, he is claiming.He is also claiming that an accountant who has tried to create order in Autogas’s financial records, which were in a mess, has established that the company has never filed audited financial statements with the Receiver of Revenue, and that it has also not been paying value-added tax over to the Receiver of Revenue.It has further been found that payments of about N$1,5 million which had been received by Autogas staff had not been banked.Liquidators Ian McLaren and Dave Bruni have now been put in control of the company.