MissChu’s $4 million debt revealed; Todd Sampson joins Qantas board: Midday Roundup

Collapsed Vietnamese restaurant chain MissChu owes more than $4 million to creditors, administrators KordaMentha have revealed.

The size of the food retailer’s debt was disclosed at the first meeting of creditors on Wednesday, Fairfax reports.

Up to $400,000 is owed to secured creditors, unsecured creditors are owed around $2.5 million, and a further $1.4 million is owed to employees, around 60 of who have already been made redundant.

Calls for expressions of interest to buy the business as a going concern will be advertised next week.

KordaMentha spokesperson Michael Smith told Fairfax there had already been 28 expressions of interest in the MissChu Sydney operations, including from founder Nahji Chu, and said the administrators were confident the business would sell.

Todd Sampson joins Qantas board

Qantas today announced the appointment of advertising guru Todd Sampson to the airline’s board as non-executive director.

The airline’s chairman Leigh Clifford said in a statement the appointment would provide onboard marketing expertise for the company.

“Todd will bring a wealth of marketing experience to the Qantas board, as well as broader business acumen from the senior leadership and strategy roles he has held,” Clifford said.

Sampson is the chief executive of advertising firm Leo Burnett Australia and is a regular guest on the ABC’s Gruen Transfer and Channel 10’s The Project. In a statement, Sampson said he was looking forward to joining the board of “one of the most iconic brands in the world”.

The appointment will take effect from 25 February 2015.

Aussie shares up on open

Aussie shares have traded higher this morning, following strong leads overnight from Wall Street and European markets.

Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, said in a statement the stronger opening was no surprise given the strong gains overseas.

“The Australian sharemarket has played out as expected with local stocks following Wall Street higher,” K’Nell said.

“Market volume into lunch was $933 million. Given we have U.S employment numbers out tonight, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see some risk taken off the table this afternoon however we still should see a positive finish.”

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was up 0.99%, rising 54 points to 5435.5 at 11.52am AEDT. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed up 1.84%, rising 323.35 points to 17,907.87 points.