Articles by Peter Gosnell

Max Brenner: casting vote needed for ex-VA fees

McGrathNicol’s Barry Kogan. BDO’s Andrew Sallway. You have to hand it to former Max Brenner Australia voluntary administrator (VA) Barry Kogan and Kogan has to hand it to the company’s current liquidator, Andrew Sallway. At the most recent meeting of creditors of the insolvent confectioner, which has been in liquidation since October 2018, the McGrathNicol partner was on hand to explain to creditors why they…


Conflicts behead EY’s Sydney restructuring team

Liquidator at large: Marcus Ayres. Adios EY – Brett Lord. To lose one senior partner from your restructuring team might seem like carelessness but two? Simultaneously? Such however is the situation EY finds itself in following the resignations of Sydney-based insolvency supremos Marcus Ayres and Brett Lord, who gave notice before Christmas. While Ayres has already departed, Lord is we understand negotiating his notice period….


PPB Advisory pair succeed in Palmer asset freeze

This is fresh out of the Supreme Court of Queensland, courtesy of Justice John Bond. “Parbery v QNI Metals Pty Ltd [2018] QSC 107 Summary of judgment This summary is not a substitute for the published reasons for judgment of the Supreme Court of Queensland. Nor may it be used in any later consideration of those reasons. The only authoritative pronouncement of the Court’s reasons…


BDO duo served afresh in $50 mill Suncorp claim

While the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry has yet to identify insolvency practitioners (IP) it wants hauled in for questioning, it’s likely some will be checking their professional indemnity policies to ensure they’re up to date. At the moment the Commission is looking at the excesses indulged in by the banks’ lending divisions. Soon that focus will switch…


Promotion: AIIP Conference tackles big questions

Some of the profession’s most pressing questions will be explored and potential solutions debated at the inaugural Association of Independent Insolvency Practitioners (AIIP) Conference to be held next month in Canberra. Questions around safe harbour; pre-packs; litigation funding, law reform and what the future might have in store will all be canvassed at the Disruption in the Insolvency Industry Conference on June 28 and 29…


Minotaur stalking Mossgreen labyrinth

It’d be unfair to suggest that every attempt at resolving the Mossgreen auction house imbroglio has merely driven the hapless imbrogliees deeper into the legal warren excavated by their competing claims, but Federal Court Justice Nye Perram’s latest ruling doesn’t exactly dispel the cynicism. In White, in the matter of Mossgreen Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) (No 3) [2018] FCA 711 the reality is laid bare. Four classes of creditor claim…


Pitchers’ Hughes proves stick admissible

A fresh judgment was produced by the Supreme Court of West Australia last week that constitutes a win for Pitcher Partners WA partner and Westgem Investments liquidator Bryan Hughes in his marathon dispute with secured creditor Commonwealth Bank over the date of Westgem’s insolvency. Specifically, the court was asked to decide whether a Quickbooks data file saved to a USB stick constituted “books and records” and was therefore admissible. Initially there’d been been no…


Palmer ups ante in PwC/PPB Advisory intervention

If Prince Harry and his fiance must endure old man Markle crashing their wedding then why should the highest profile pairing in Australia’s insolvency sector be exempt from intervention? The answer is that it even if it should be it isn’t, as evidenced by the confetti of subpoenas and affidavits filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland this week by lawyers representing one Clive Frederick…


Receivers to tackle Mossgreen mess

Insolvent auction houses. Who’d touch one after the mess BDO’s James White, Andrew Sallway and Nick Martin have found themselves in? Grey House Partners, that’s who. In Re Mossgreen Pty Ltd (in liquidation) [2018] VSC 230 (9 May 2018) we learn of a recent attempt to install Greyhouse’s Andrew Beck and Ben Verney as receivers of goods stored in a warehouse in the Victorian suburb of Clayton. From…


Threat to block PwC/PPB takeover overlooks obvious

Earlier this week it was reported that Clive Palmer was seeking to block the sale of PPB Advisory (PPBA) to PwC but our sources report that the initial application for interim freezing orders against PPBA founder Steve Parbery and partner Michael Owen was dismissed late last Friday afternoon and withdrawn before it was due to be heard yesterday. Overnight Palmer – believed to be holidaying in Europe – said…