Still south of the border we find revealed in a judgement of the Victorian Supreme Court details of a civilised little scrap between Matthew Jess and Nathan Deppeler of Worrells (them again) and Matt Muldoon and Ken Sellers of Sellers Muldoon Benton, over the existence and extent of liens, both statutory and equitable. In the matter of Specialist Australian Security Group Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) (ACN 094 807…
Stratos Legal has released its numbers for insolvency appointments for first quarter 2018 and they show that while some firms that dominated 2017 are off to a similarly buoyant start this year, others that finished on top in 2017 are lagging. Mackay Goodwin for example, which led the list of voluntary administrations (VAs) in NSW at the end of last year with 35, is currently not…
It’s not often that an administrator’s assessment of a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) is sufficiently bleak for them to recommend creditors ignore the DoCA’s promise and put the company into liquidation. Nor is quite the norm for the creditors to ignore the administrators’ recommendation and wholeheartedly endorse the dubious and doubtful deed. That however is what transpired in the curious matter of Syndicate Forty…
dVT’s Antony Resnick and Dave Solomons have been dragged into a dispute that has led to a challenge to the validity of their appointment as administrators to the Carzapp group of companies connected to self-described entrepreneur Graham Meyerowitz. NSW Supreme Court judge Justice Ashley Black this week heard that the challenge is based on “discreet issues” relating to the companies’ constitutions and whether the appointing director had…
This afternoon lawyers for BDO partners James White, Andrew Sallway and Nick Martin will return to the Federal Court hoping to reverse the April 9, 2018 judgment of Justice Nye Perram in the matter of Mossgreen Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) [2018] FCA 471. Last Monday the judge ruled that the BDO trio – who were appointed administrators of the gallery and auction house on December 21,…
Worrells’ South Australia duo Nick Cooper and Dominic Cantone are preparing for a bare knuckle brawl with Adelaide Brighton Concrete Limited (ABCL) over their endorsement of a Deed of Company Arrangement (DoCA) that is not to the liking of the construction materials behemoth. Cooper and Cantone became deed administrators of the DoCA just before Christmas last year after a brief stint as voluntary administrators (VAs) of ABCL…
Jirsch Sutherland’s Glenn Crisp must be fuming after a director who appointed him and colleague Liam Bellamy as voluntary administrators (VAs) of multi-channel clothing retailer Zachary the Label turned up at the first meeting and used his leverage as major creditor via related company H & A Outfitters Group to replace the Jirsch pair. The job came to Jirsch’s Melbourne office on February 22, 2018 via referrer Nexus Advisory…
The report to creditors of failed construction joint venture CRCG-Rimfire contains some instructive detail in relation to administrations where the major stakeholder is also a state-owned enterprise from communist China. Grant Thornton’s Mike McCann and Said Jahani were appointed voluntary administrators (VAs) late last year and have turned out a hefty 217 page report ahead of this morning’s meeting in Brisbane, where creditors will either vote to…
Those practitioners considering a holding DoCa would be advised to consider the decision this morning of the High Court of Australia to grant special leave in the matter of Mighty River International Limited V Hughes & Ors. The Hughes in this matter is Pitcher Partners’ Bryan Hughes, who along with colleague Daniel Bredenkamp has been battling Mighty River’s director, Australian-Chinese businessman Yuzheng “Eugene” Xie over the Mesa Minerals deed of…
Hell hath no fury like a Committee of Inspection (COI) convinced it’s been kept in the dark – just ask Derrick Vickers. PwC’s national head of corporate finance and restructuring was appointed voluntary administrator (VA) of Queensland-based Ostwald Bros Pty Ltd and two other Ostwald group entities back on August 28, 2017, just two days before the commencement of tranche 2 of the Insolvency Law Reform Act (2017). Now…