Around 200 Bathla staff have been stood down as administrators desperately search for funds to keep the property developer afloat.
Bathla Group entered voluntary administration in late August, owing a reported $3.3billion.
Hong- Kong-based PAG, Ray White Capital and Centuria are among a small group of lenders negotiating a loan of between $3million and $5million.
The small cash injection would give insolvency advisory Teneo until the end of September to finalise a plan that would allow Bathla to keep operating.
The negotiation has lasted the entire weekend, but it has still not been signed off on, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Last Thursday, Teneo announced it had found enough cash to pay wages accrued since August 25.
The partial payment covers the period since Teneo was appointed administrator, but will not meet all wages owed by Bathla, with some staff having not been paid for weeks.
Administrator Stephen Longley said Bathla’s employees had engaged with Teneo constructively, but stressed the payroll target was only the first hurdle.
Around 200 Bathla staff have been stood down as administrators desperately search for funds to keep the property developer afloat
‘The situation is complex,’ he said in a statement, adding the short-term funding administrators are still attempting to secure would only afford a few weeks of breathing room.
A Bathla insider told the Daily Mail: ‘Truth is they have no bad intentions. They want to survive.’
The news left countless homebuyers and creditors wondering what it meant for their investments, with staff uncertain whether they would lose their jobs.
A $20million one-month injection would allow administrators to pursue longer-term funding and progress the group’s 45 projects under construction.
Should they fail to secure a lifeline from lenders, the home developer is expected to be wound up after the NSW government declined to bail it out.
According to Bathla’s website, the group has 20,000 apartments and 7,000 dwellings in its delivery pipeline, added to the scores of projects under construction, centred mainly in Sydney’s northwest.
The projects comprise a significant share of the NSW government’s target of 75,400 new homes a year for five years until 2029.
Homebuyers who bought off-the-plan have been left in the dark, uncertain when, or if, their properties will be completed, while contractors have been left scrambling to recoup debts.
more to come
