Optimum wars: Billionaire ex-Gupta associate threatens to walk away, leaving jobs at stake

The businessman trying to buy the assets of the Gupta family's lucrative Optimum Coal Mine (OCM) has threatened to walk away from the deal if the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) succeeds in terminating an agreement allowing the mine to export coal.

In an affidavit commissioned in Parktown on Friday, Daniel McGowan, a shadowy British billionaire and former Gupta associate, said should the RBCT be allowed to terminate the agreement, he would walk away from his bid to buy Optimum Coal Mine (OCM) and Optimum Coal Terminal (OCT). If this happened, the mine and the terminal would crash, leaving creditors in the lurch and thousands of miners jobless, read the affidavit.

McGowan's affidavit is in support of a legal bid by Optimum's business rescue practitioners to stop the RBCT from terminating the agreement with effect from 31 January. Last week, Optimum's business rescue practitioners filed an urgent application in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban to stop RBCT from terminating an agreement which allows OCT to export coal to lucrative markets overseas.