By Pattrick Smellie Sept. 17 (BusinessDesk) – A New South Wales-based mining investor, Mach Energy, is expected to make an alternative bid for distressed state-owned coal miner Solid Energy at today’s ‘watershed’ meeting of creditors in Christchurch this morning. BusinessDesk reliably understands Mach will seek a 30 day delay to the vote scheduled at today’s meeting of Solid Energy creditors, …

As the sun set in Canberra today, another Shakespearean-worthy political plot was thickening. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s colleagues in his Liberal Party rallied around a former Goldman Sachs banker and the member of parliament from Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull. Members caucused and voted 54-44 to oust an increasingly unpopular Abbott and replace him with the country’s top polling politician, Turnbull. Turnbull …

Solid Energy’s banking backers can expect to get back between 35 cents and 40 cents in the dollar under a Deed of Company Arrangement that will allow the insolvent state-owned coal miner to be wound up and its saleable assets disposed of over the next two and a half years. A raft of banks, local authorities and businesses including Kiwirail, Fonterra …