Much of the blood presently thickening our economic waters comes courtesy of failed building and construction firms, with wounded players going belly up thanks to rising interest rates, spiralling labour and materials costs and the return of the tax office to the fray.
Inevitably, this means more referrals to practitioners and more competition for appointments, which brings us to this week’s tale of triumph and loss in respect of failed West Australian-based homer builder Modco Residential.
After being hit with a statutory demand for $28,000 in June Modco’s directors last month appointed GTS Advisory director Mathieu Tribut as voluntary administrator (VA).
A deed of company arrangement (DoCA) proposal was supposedly being brewed and Tribut planned to pitch it to creditors on August 28. Then a funny thing happened.
When the winding up application next came before the courts lawyer Jos Basson from Rostron Carlysle Rojas (RCR) appeared, seeking to be substituted for applicant creditor Torquejobs Pty Ltd, which had been paid out.
Supported by two other creditors, RCR was seeking substitution so that it could then apply to have Modco wound up.
Interestingly, McGrathNicol partners Anthony Connelly and Jamie Harris are currently heading for mediation in an ongoing dispute with Torquejobs and its director Ciano St John Lopez.
Back in 2022 the ATO ousted Gavin Morton as administrator of TSK QLD Pty Ltd and had the company wound up and the McGrathNicol duo appointed as liquidators.
St John Lopez had been a former director of TSK QLD but after departing he incorporated Torquejobs which then purchased TSK’s business at a substantial discount prior to TSK appointing Morton.
iNO understand the TSK liquidators have filed their lay evidence and expert reports and the next step is likely to be an attempt at mediation. But back to Modco.
Through his lawyer Nathan Draper, a senior associate at Mendelawitz Morton, Tribut sought to have RCR’s application for substitution thrown out on the basis that the Torquejobs debt had been extinguished.
Federal Court Registrar Phillip Allaway swiftly harpooned that proposition and just as quickly torpedoed Draper’s back up plan, which called for an adjournment of the winding up hearing so a second meeting could be convened and the proposed DoCA considered.
“How could an administrator yet to go before the company’s creditors oppose the winding up without having put the proposal to a vote,” Allaway said.
“There is no evidence before the court to satisfy me that it is in the interests of the creditors as a whole of the company that the matter be adjourned and that it proceeds to a vote at the meeting.”
The Registrar ordered that Modco be wound up and that RCR’s nominated liquidators be appointed meaning Hall Chadwick’s Cameron Shaw and Richard Albarran have wrested the gig from Tribut’s grasp, albeit bloodlessly.
Further reading:
Liquidators tackle pre-insolvency advisor
Be the first to comment on "Hall Chadwick muscles in on Modco"