Tinkler ordered to appear in court

Nathan Tinkler has failed in an attempt to prevent a liquidators' examination of him and three officers of his private company Mulsanne Resources.

He will now appear in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday or be held in contempt and face possible arrest.

On Tuesday Judge Paul Brereton dismissed with costs Mr Tinkler's claim that the examination proceedings turned into an "abuse of process".

Last Thursday, when a solicitor for Mulsanne liquidator Ferrier Hodgson, Clayton Utz partner Jennifer Ball, sent an email offering an adjournment of the first examination hearing, set down for 11am on Friday, if Mr Tinkler could prove he could deliver $15 million in cash or guarantees to Mulsanne's major creditor, Blackwood Corporation.

Blackwood initiated the wind-up over a $28.4 million debt Mulsanne incurred when it failed to complete a share placement agreed last year. The placement was of 94.7 million shares at 30¢ each and would have given Mulsanne a 30 per cent stake in Blackwood, which is 51 per cent owned by Singapore-based commodities trader Noble Group. Blackwood was the sole external creditor to Mulsanne - three other private Tinkler Group entities were owed $31,000 - and was funding the liquidator.

The court heard on Tuesday that a Singapore-based company linked to Tinkler Group, Cayenne Coal, had offered last Wednesday to buy up to 100 per cent of the shares in Blackwood at 30¢ a share.

That would put the value of the company at more than $55.5 million, subject to debt financing, on condition that the dispute over the share placement agreement would be settled, wind-up proceedings would be terminated and there would be no public examination of Mr Tinkler and Mulsanne officers Troy Palmer, Matthew Keen and Aimee Hyde.

Over Thursday Blackwood wrote rejecting the offer but said it might accept a proposal that included the $15 million payment as security.

Mr Tinkler's lawyers replied that they were "happy to try and make this work", and Friday's 11am hearing was adjourned by consent, but by 2pm the abuse of process claim was filed on the basis that Ms Ball was using the threat of examination to advantage Blackwood.