Australian Wool Innovation Ltd (AWI) says it's being unfairly painted the villain in long-running efforts to get $6.2 million from the sale of office space in Mumbai, India, repatriated back to Australia.
The now-defunct International Wool Secretariat (IWS) originally bought the Mumbai offices back in the 1970s which were owned by Australian Wool Services Ltd (AWS) when most of its core assets, including the Woolmark Company, were bought by AWI in 2007 with the help of a $15 million grant from the Federal Government.
The move was aimed at removing AWI from ongoing liabilities to the IWS pension fund with the problem flicked to AWS which was renamed the Graziers Investment Company (GIC).
GIC has been selling its remaining assets and will be wound up after its obligations to the pension fund and some outstanding overseas tax issues are complete which won't happen before 2012.
The sale of the Mumbai property in May, 2010, has been handled by AWI which has been under attack from GIC chairman, Barry Walker, for being tardy in finalising the deal.
He said the delays had already cost his shareholders almost $1 million in foreign exchange losses and more were expected.
But AWI CEO, Stuart McCullough, told the company's annual general meeting last week that the proceeds from the deal were now held by the Indian Reserve Bank.
He said repatriating money from India was difficult and complex and AWI was moving as quickly as it could to deliver the proceeds to GIC. There was no way AWI could have avoided the foreign exchange losses, he said.
AWI had no interest in holding up the deal but believed it was prudent to have the money in its Australian account before paying GIC, Mr McCullough said.
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