It was back when the iron ore miner was facing a debt crisis in late 2012. The iron price had slipped to $US87 a tonne - well done from $US140 per tonne - and Mr Forrest's company needed to refinance $US4.5 billion in debt. The alternative was capital raising that would have diluted Mr Forrest's stake. Mr Bleyer said that he had never personally spoken to FMG "but one of the other Australian companies did speak, did talk with some people at Fortescue". Mr Bleyer would not say which of his companies had held discussion with Fortescue. In the case of Padbury, the proposed funding deal appears to run by a private company called Alliance Super Holdings. Industry sources claim that representatives of Alliance Super Holdings - whose directors include Kenneth Grimmond and Jeffrey Perrey - have used the supposed Fortescue discussions as a selling point to do other deals. Market sources say that Mr Bleyer rarely fronts meetings with companies Alliance is interested in dealing with.