This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
CONSTRUCTION company St Hilliers collapsed owing $52 million to creditors, subcontractors, suppliers and staff, administrators confirmed yesterday.
St Hilliers became latest casualty of the harsh trading environment for construction and building companies earlier this month, falling into the hands of Glenn Livingstone and Alan Walker of WLP Restructuring, and halting work on 21 projects across the country.
Livingstone told creditors yesterday that work could restart on one Queensland project as early as this week. Contracts for two other Queensland projects have been terminated, which meant another six people lost their jobs in addition to the initial 22 redundancies.
Of the remaining 18 projects, 10 are for the Department of Defence.
Livingstone also said creditors are owed $40 million, while subcontractors had been paid up to the last payment cycle, but $10 million could be owed for work done after that.
Employees could reportedly be owed up $4.3 million. There have been $16.6 million in retention claims and $13 million in cashback guarantees held for clients.
Livingstone told Nine Media yesterday that administrators were likely to seek court approval granting an extension of the 28-day period from point of appointment until the second creditors’ meeting to three months, to allow time to work on a proposal for the company’s future.
Some 100 days’ work lost to wet weather made an impact on the company’s situation, it was revealed, in addition to rising interest rates and other costs.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) reports show St Hilliers suffered losses of about $12 million over the last two financial years. Construction revenue fell from $164.3 million in FY22 to $154 million in FY23.
The industry has been smashed by record materials costs, supply chain issues, labour shortages and higher interest rates since the beginning of COVID.
Administrators and receivers reports were made for more than 1,500 construction companies in the previous financial year, according to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, dominating the number of initial external administrators’ and receivers’ reports – accounting for 28% of the 5,440 recorded across all industries.
Major collapses in recent years have included home builder Porter Davis, which collapsed with 1,700 homes under construction, and Caydon Property Group collapsed, putting more than a billion dollars’ worth of projects in limbo.
