NATHAN Tinkler has stumped up $17 million at the 11th hour to settle one of the biggest immediate financial threats facing the mining entrepreneur.
Having missed two earlier payment deadlines, including one imposed by the NSW Supreme Court, Mr Tinkler's Ocean Street Holdings yesterday made the payment to listed property developer Mirvac for a parcel of industrial land in Newcastle.
Last week, the court had given Ocean Street Holdings until 2pm yesterday to make the payment, or face having the land sequestered to a third party, insolvency specialist Tony McGrath of McGrathNicol.
At 5.20pm yesterday, Mirvac spokesman David Symons confirmed the payment had "settled" with "cheques received".
Lawyers for Mirvac and Mr Tinkler are set to appear before judge Michael Slattery in the NSW Supreme Court this morning to report on the outcome of their negotiations.
Mirvac took Ocean Street Holdings to court in August after it failed to pay for the land which it had agreed to buy.
Ocean Street Holdings was ordered to make the payment by September 1 but failed to do so, leading to lawyers for the company being asked by the court why it should not be held in contempt.
Mr Tinkler's ability to make the payment to Mirvac was being closely watched, with questions raised over the solvency of the entrepreneur's businesses after he failed to proceed with a $5.3 billion bid for Whitehaven Coal in August.
The next significant financial hurdle facing Mr Tinkler is a payment of $28.4m being sought from mining junior Blackwood.
Mr Tinkler's private investment company had promised to buy a 33.85 per cent stake in Blackwood but failed to do so, causing Blackwood to sue.
Ocean Street Holdings had contracted to buy the Newcastle industrial parcel -- named the Steel River Industrial Estate -- with the view to using it as a rail corridor for a $2.5m coal-loader Mr Tinkler planned to build nearby. In January, that proposed coal-loader development, was rejected by the NSW Premier, Barry O'Farrell.
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