Buyers line up for a slice of collapsed telco Commander

More than 60 parties have expressed interest in buying assets of the collapsed telco and internet junior Commander Communications.

More than 60 parties have expressed interest in buying assets of the collapsed telco and internet junior Commander Communications.

Receivers and managers, Peter Anderson, Chris Honey and Joseph Hayes of McGrathNicol officially called for submissions from businesses interested in parts of Commander yesterday, but say they have been contacted by a raft of interested parties in the last week.

The receivers have split Commander into two divisions to speed up the sale process. On offer is the managed and professional services business, which focuses on large customers and government departments (turnover of around $110 million), and the enterprise and small and medium business division (turnover of $345 million).

Companies that have declared interest in Commander include ASG Group, BigAir and Data#3.

The receivers now believe they can complete a sale within eight to 12 weeks.

Commander collapsed in early August with debts of $300 million. The biggest creditors are Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and NAB.

The first meeting of creditors was held yesterday in Sydney, but unsecured creditors – mainly Commander’s suppliers and resellers – were told there is little hope of recovering their money.

Commander, which has 30,000 SME customers, is being run on a “business as usual” basis while the sale process continues.

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