The sudden departure of the Oswals leaves many questions unanswered.
A 22-DAY-OLD internet advertisement for a driver is among a handful of job vacancies in Dubai that appear linked to the establishment of a significant base for the operations of Pankaj and Radhika Oswal, who quit Perth last month.
The driver’s job is with a business called Otarian, the same name as the restaurant chain established at an estimated cost of $20 million by Mrs Oswal.
Speculation has been rife for weeks about where the Oswals have gone after their departure from Perth just a week before the ANZ appointed receivers PPB Advisory to Burrup Fertilisers, a joint venture with Norwegian-based giant Yara International.
With debts thought to amount to $900 million, questions being raised about their business dealings, a $70 million mansion half built and at least two unfinished court battles, there are plenty of reasons for the Perth business community to want to know where this high-profile couple has gone.
Despite talk of them seeking sanctuary in Delhi from the media they once courted, indications are that Dubai is their new headquarters.
While the Oswals’ spokesperson said the Dubai destination on packing cases leaving their home was simply because the billionaire business family wanted to save on government duties, the job advertisements appear to provide a different picture.
Other jobs that appear when ‘Otarian Dubai’ is searched on the web are: an accountant, preferably Indian, with experience in hotel or restaurant industry; a personal assistant to the managing director and chairperson; and a female Indian domestic maid for an Indian business family.
The job advertisements add to strong speculation that the Oswals are rapidly re-establishing themselves in the United Arab Emirates.
Sources have told WA Business News they are setting up an office for about a dozen people in the Emaar Business Park and seeking an apartment in which to live.
While Dubai is, as the Oswals’ spokesperson suggests, a logical point to base oneself if you have plans for a major development in nearby Oman, it is also quite likely out of reach of Australian legal action should there be any substance to claims of numerous board level related-party transactions.
The ANZ-appointed receivers from PPB Advisory say they are investigating these and may look at extradition if a legal case can be mounted. They plan to provide a confidential report to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in the next week or two.
The Oswal camp has reacted with fury at suggestions of any irregularity, even though they are at the heart of the issues between them and Yara and have been the subject of accusations in previous court proceedings.
“Comments from the receiver about unspecified financial irregularities are both cynical and frustrating,” Mr Oswal said in a statement earlier this month.
“I have yet to receive any substantive details of these so-called financial irregularities.
“I find this frustrating as I am not able to make a comprehensive response.”
One of the reasons Mr Oswal has been unable to adequately respond is because he left Australia with his family on or around December 10, having cleared out his Perth CBD office within the headquarters of Burrup Fertilisers.
The Oswals have claimed they were concerned about the impact of publicity on their children.
Much of the past media attention towards Oswals, though, has been the positive sort, notably in the celebrity and lifestyle pages where the couple appeared constantly – be it about their parties, their house or their vegetarianism, a way of life that found substance in the fledgling Otarian restaurant business, which most commentators suggest is now doomed.
By leaving Perth the Oswals apparently abandoned plans for a party for their daughter’s birthday (on a yacht later seized by the receivers).
This was a week before the receivership was announced, and several days before WA Business News broke the news that a shake-up of Burrup Fertilisers’ ownership was on the cards.
When questioned before the receivership was announced, Burrup Fertilisers’ management denied the Oswals had cleaned out their office and quit Australia.
The Oswals have also denied that in angry correspondence since the receivership was announced.
“Suggestions that Pankaj and Radhika have ‘fled’ Perth are both hurtful and false,” a statement from the Oswals said.
“Both are concerned and upset over the level of media scrutiny and the events of the past few weeks, particularly their youngest daughter.
“This has resulted in the Oswals reconsidering their family’s future in Australia, which has been their home for the past 10 years.
“The Oswals are a devoted family and have a strong support base in India with other profitable business interests and viable ventures in other different countries.”
Just how much the Oswals have to show for the decade in which they developed Burrup Fertilisers is difficult to ascertain.
While they could generate several hundred million dollars from a successful sale of the fertiliser business after debts of up to $900 million are paid off – especially with some 20 parties said to be interested – it is hard to equate with a previous reported net worth of up to $5 billion.
The biggest named operations in the Oswal group appear to be the Maruti Shipping company in Singapore, a fledgling operation that has committed to a $US320 million order of cargo vessels. There is also a $US400 million caustic soda plant proposed for Oman.
While supporters suggest his track record with Burrup Fertilisers proves Mr Oswal has the entrepreneurial flair to make such a project happen, critics claim it was his former partner, Vikas Rambal, who largely drove the Pilbara plant.
The pair had a falling out and Mr Rambal took legal action against Mr Oswal and Burrup Fertilisers, citing complaints of related party transactions. Mr Rambal reportedly sold out for between $90 million and $300 million and the case was settled out of court.
Mr Rambal has since gone on to start construction of the $3.5 billion Perdaman urea plant at Collie.
Just how much the Oswals can tap into family money is another source of speculation.
Mr Oswal, a chemical engineer by profession, certainly had the means to underwrite the Burrup Fertilisers plant, which was the only one of several projects mooted for the peninsula in the early days of the Gallop state government.
Its go-ahead triggered state infrastructure of at least $135 million. Burrup Fertilisers remains the main beneficiary of that outlay.
The suggestion is that seed capital came from his father Abhey, a Delhi-based industrialist who appears to have a controversial track record in Indian heavy industry over the past three decades. Despite mixed reports, Abhey Oswal is quite likely to have had the few hundred million that was required when Burrup Fertilisers was starting.
Then again, there has long been talk of estrangement between Mr Oswal and his father.
The Oswals’ spokesperson pours cold water on that idea, claiming Pankaj, Radhika and children are currently residing in the extended family compound in India.
The remaining empire of Pankaj and Radhika Oswal, though, is difficult to get a fix on. Despite numerous references to the Oswal Group Global, WA Business News was unable to find a website or evidence of significant operating assets.
If such an empire exists, it begs the question why Burrup Fertilisers was paying for staff to work on Oswal projects such as Otarian and the Oman plant. The receivers claim to have laid off several staff that were on the Burrup Fertilisers payroll yet were not obviously working for the business that paid them.
An Oswal spokesperson said some staff had played an integral part in developing the business and their know-how was important to the operation. They had also been rewarded by the offer of new and interesting work to keep them on. Of course, there may well be an empire that has remained veiled from scrutiny, as many private operations are.
Presumably, joint venture partner Yara did its due diligence on the Oswals before going into business with them, initially with an offtake agreement and 30 per cent share, which was later extended to 35 per cent.
Since the receivership, Yara has said little, but the little it has said has certainly been tinged with as much anger as Mr Oswal has shown.
“As a Burrup shareholder, Yara has every right to be concerned about financial irregularities which the receivers have confirmed to exist, and we are not going to respond in detail to this latest smokescreen,” Yara said in response to Mr Oswal’s public statement.
“Mr Oswal would be better served by returning to Australia and answering the growing number of serious questions that now exist regarding his activities in the lead-up to and following the appointment of receivers to Burrup.”
