Clough Group:
One of Australia’s oldest building companies, the Clough Group, entered voluntary administration on December 6, leaving 1,250 employees in the lurch.
The Perth-based business’s South African parent company Murray & Roberts informed investors that a $350million ‘white knight’ takeover deal had fallen through.
The 102-year-old building and engineering company, which is building the Australian Government-backed Snowy Hydro 2.0 energy project, was set to be acquired by Italian construction group WeBuild.
FIRM Construction:
On November 24, the building giant with a turnover of nearly $100million just two years ago became yet another construction business to collapse.
The Western Australia-based FIRM construction announced it had gone into administration, with subcontractors reportedly owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Director and co-owner Mark O’Gorman said the company had been undone by growing financial difficulties caused by higher labour and material costs.
‘We have been closely engaged with the Department of Finance in the past few weeks to ensure our approach is aligned in terms of how best to deliver on our public sector projects, and we hope that process will continue while we are taking steps to restructure the company,’ he said.
Privium:
The company poured $3million into a Gold Coast cryptocurrency and more than half a million to a Christian charity in a last ditch effort before it went under.
Privium group, a conglomerate of companies best known for home building, went into liquidation in December, with a report conducted into their finances finding they had likely been trading while insolvent.
Hundreds of properties have been left unfinished due to Privium going bust, with founder and CEO Rob Harder saying they are ‘deeply sorry’.
Privium, which is based in Brisbane and includes property developer Impact Homes, has built houses in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
The pandemic hurt the group’s business, with building sites shut down around the country but particularly in Victoria due to the state’s lengthy lockdown in 2020.
Administrators, however, believe it was a series of investments that were responsible for its downfall rather than Covid, citing the $3million crypto punt.
It turned the cash into Bartercard dollars which were then converted in Qoin coin, a Gold Coast-based currency.
They also noted a $530,000 donation to Christian charity Love Your World, who counts Privium founder Mr Harder’s wife Rachel as one of its directors.
The sum was paid over four payments in 2021, while a special dividend of $50,000 was also paid to Love Your World in 2019.
These payments could also be in breach of directors duties.
Next:
The Sydney-based company went under in April, blaming the pandemic, rising material costs and even the floods for its demise.
Next, which specialises in affordable housing for aged care and students, collapsed owing $5million to creditors including $400,000 to employees.
It’s biggest project, a $35million student apartment complex in Kensington, next to UNSW, is now in doubt.
Condev:
The Gold Coast firm collapsed in January, a month before ProBuild, with $1billion in projects on Queensland’s waterfront in the works.
Condev founders Steve and Tracy Marais unsuccessfully attempted to achieve a $25million bailout from developers, with Mrs Marais saying he believed other firms would suffer the same fate.
They have been forced to abandon a series of brand new developments including a new complex on the Cannes Waterfront in Surfers Paradise.