This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MAJOR apartment developer Crown Group has been placed into provisional liquidation amid a fallout between its founding partners Iwan Sunito and Paul Pathio, putting a cloud over the future of its billion-dollar-plus pipeline.
Duncan Clubb and Andrew Sallway of BDO have been appointed provisional liquidators of Crown Group and 40 of its entities by the NSW Supreme Court.
They will take control over Crown’s trust money and Crown Group’s property portfolio, which includes completed projects in the Sydney CBD, North Sydney, Green Square, and Parramatta, while last year it announced a $550 million revitalisation project of Brisbane’s West End.
Sunito and Sathio fell out over differences in business strategy, according to the Australian Financial Review, and this had already put the $500 million Sydney apartment retail complex Mastery in receivership.
Sathio’s PNR International lodged court action to have the Crown Group wound up earlier this month after attempts at an out-of-court resolution failed. They had agreed last year to split the group’s property portfolio in September last year but this did not proceed, and Sathio sued Sunito.
The appointment of liquidators will allow Crown to again process sales and payments to contractors that had been on hold since the start of 2023, as Crown required approvals from both Sunito and Sathio.
