RETAIL magnate Gerry Harvey has called in debts estimated to be up to $40 million from former fellow billionaire Nathan Tinkler and will sell the mining identity's entire horse-racing operation.
The remnants of Mr Tinkler's Patinack Farm thoroughbred racing empire is due to be sold by the last week of September. It includes 560 horses and substantial property holdings. The sale, at Mr Harvey's Magic Millions horse auctions on the Gold Coast, will be the biggest of its type in Australian horse industry history.
Mr Harvey told The Australian Financial Review that Mr Tinkler "has decided to stick with something that he believes he knows really well, coalmining, and therefore he will get out of the racing industry".
Mr Harvey would not comment on what Mr Tinkler owes him, other than admitting it was "a substantial amount".
He declined to comment on what the sale could reap. Some industry sources estimate the assets could fetch at most about $30 million.
Mr Tinkler had borrowed the money to finance previous spending sprees on horses, with some estimates putting the amount he has spent on Patinack Farm since he established it in 2007 as high as $300 million.
Mr Harvey, however, insisted he was still on good terms with Mr Tinkler, who is now based in Singapore.
"I spoke to him only yesterday," Mr Harvey said on Thursday. "I will probably speak to him at least once a week up until the sale. But he is busy out there trying to make another fortune in coal. And, who knows, if he does make that fortune maybe he will get back into the horse industry one day. You never know."
Mr Harvey has held a caveat over the Patinack Farm operations, which Mr Tinkler had previously announced in May were to be sold to a Middle Eastern consortium on a "walk in, walk out" basis for about $100 million.
The mooted sale was negotiated by United Arab Emirates-based investment firm Cibola Capital, run by Australian Daniel Kenny.
However, the deal was not completed and Mr Harvey has instead chosen to go ahead with his own sale process.
The entire portfolio of Patinack Farm – stallions, brood mares, foals, yearlings and racehorses – will go under the hammer in September, almost 18 months after a previous dispersal sale of Mr Tinkler's horses raised about $23 million.
Also available are a 1335-hectare breeding facility in the Hunter Valley, NSW, a 405-hectare training and stud facility at Canungra on the Gold Coast and 384 hectares of undeveloped land at Monegeetta, north-west of Melbourne.
Mr Harvey said while he hoped both the horses and property holdings would be sold, the property could take longer to find a buyer given the need to appoint rural property agents to market the land in Australia and abroad.
Workers at the operations have been told they will close within two weeks.
Mr Tinkler, who has lost almost all of his previous billion-dollar fortune, has been trying to find funds and investors to complete a $150 million deal to buy the Wilkie Creek coalmine in Queensland.
However, a deadline for a portion of the price passed in June without payment.
