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Guvera execs to be questioned under oath at liquidators ‘public examination’

By | Published on Monday 2 October 2017

Guvera

There could be some “impactful and valuable” insights on offer into the financing and collapse of streaming music company Guvera next month, following the news that the liquidator of three of the failed firm’s subsidiaries plans to hold a ‘public examination’ in the federal court in Sydney.

Co-founders Darren Herft and Claes Loberg are likely to be questioned under oath about the Guvera business, which began to fall apart after a failed attempt to IPO on the Australian stock exchange in June last year. The company – which had long argued that the digital music sector had yet to fully capitalise on the potential of ad-funded streaming – finally shut its doors earlier this year, having already gone offline in various markets.

According to The Australian, liquidator Eddie Senatore – from Deloitte – has said he plans to hold public examinations as part of his work on the Guvera liquidation “as a result of the complexities surrounding the intercompany arrangements of the Guvera group”. He added that “one of the outcomes of this public examination should be to provide some impactful and valuable insights into these issues as they relate to the collapse of the Guvera group, and business development more generally”.

In addition to Herft and Loberg, an assortment of other people linked to Guvera could be called to give evidence. Various former directors of the company are likely to be questioned, along with the company’s Chief Financial Officer, and lawyers and accountants who provided services to the business.

As previously reported, there has been some criticism of the way Guvera raised money via investment firm Amma Private Equity, where Herft also had a role. The Australian Securities And Investments Commission expressed concerns about the fundraising methods allegedly used by the streaming firm in a letter to the Institute Of Public Accountants in July.

The public examinations into Guvera are scheduled to take place on 14 and 17 Nov.



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