ILTA Grain, with a facility in Belle Plaine, has gone into receivership owing creditors $149.5 million.
A petition under the Companies Creditors’ Arrangement Act cites challenging international market conditions for the financial difficulties.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is the trustee in receivership and will operate the company until the courts order a sale.
ILTA started operations in 2014, rapidly growing the buying, processing and exporting business in lentils, peas and chickpeas into six facilities.
The Surrey, B.C. headquartered company has processing operations at Saskatoon with 500,000 tonnes capacity; Belle Plaine, 465,000 tonnes; Swift Current, 60,000 tonnes; Cutknife, 70,000 tonnes; and two at North Battleford with a combined 140,000 tonnes
A Portage La Prairie facility was sold in January to help restructure operations. Court documents show that an attempted sale of the Belle Plaine facility drew interest but no buyer.
Ongoing efforts to restructure operations have been unsuccessful, leading the main investors to order filing for receivership under the Companies Creditors’Arrangement Act.
Investors NGP Grain Holdings of Calgary and EGI-ILTA have put $146 million into the grain company since 2014.
Court documents show the company owes creditors $149.5 million plus $300 million to employees.
The company has $236 million assets and $36 million in cash. HSBC is listed as the banker.
A court hearing will rule on disposal of assets.
The Canadian Grain Commission suspended ILTA’s licence effective July 10 after the company insuring ILTA for farmer liabilities stopped coverage.
Farmers owed money by ILTA should contact the grain commission at 1-800-853-6705 or by email.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
