MANILA: In late 2005, Andrew Binetter, the then chief executive of Australian juice business Nudie, described to officers working at Israel Discount Bank (IDB) how the family venture had taken off. Binetter, who was a co-founder and appointed CEO of Nudie in 2005, told the bank: “We are getting a lot of good financial press in the Australian business media.”
“We have even been in discussion with a Richard Branson company with a view to acquiring it,” according to an affidavit produced by Binetter during a subsequent tax appeal against the ATO.
He went on to explain how private equity business CHAMP had invested in Nudie, taking its valuation at the time to $29 million. Sure, the fire at Nudie’s factory in May 2004 had hurt, Binetter said, “but we are rebounding from this setback”.
Nudie, which today is one of Australia’s fastest-growing juice companies, had temporarily outsourced manufacturing to various premises around Australia and was looking to set up its own premises again at Pagewood in Sydney’s east. Binetter said a loan was also needed so they could buy equipment for Nudie and a separate Tamarama juice business.
“My father wants to set up a new company to borrow monies from your bank so that it can on-lend to Ligon 158, so that Ligon can rebuild the Pagewood premises so that Nudie can get back into its premises,” he said.
“Also we want to borrow money so that Ligon 158 and Ligon 237 [others] can increase their investments in the Nudie Group business. Currently, we own about 27.5 per cent of Nudie, but my father wants to take control of Nudie because, as you can see, it is a growing business.”
Nudie was last year taken over by Philippines-based food company Monde Nissin Corporation for about $80 million. But what started as a sweet success story for the Binetter family has, for it at least, turned sour.
On Friday afternoon, the Federal Court ruled the Binetter family’s dealings with IDB and another Israeli bank, Bank Hapoalim, were a scam created solely for the purpose of evading income tax.
