Nov 7, 2008, 7:10 GMT
Sydney - Australia's failed ABC Learning Centres Ltd on Friday got a big cash injection from the government to keep its 1,100 child care outlets open until they can be sold to rival operators.
ABC, with a quarter of the market, provides 120,000 places and employs 16,000 people.
'The 22 million Australian dollars (15 million US dollars) represents the possible cost of supporting the continued operation of these centres for two months,' Education Minister Julia Gillard said. 'It will allow parents to have the certainty that child care will be provided as usual in that period and will also provide stability for employees at ABC.'
Administrators were called in Thursday after banks, who are owed 1.3 billion Australian dollars, called in their loans.
ABC, founded by South African-born Eddy Groves, was once the world's biggest provider of child care with operations in the United States and Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand. It took on so much debt in its expansion programme that it was never expected to survive the credit crisis.
Groves, who last month severed his links with ABC, has been forced by margin calls to sell all his holdings. Some of the shares he unloaded were picked up by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, now the biggest investor in the crippled company with a stake of 14.6 per cent.
His estranged wife, Le Neve Groves, has also been obliged to sell all her shares and is suing her husband for millions of dollars in compensation. Earlier in the year the pair had 8 per cent of the Brisbane-based company.
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