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Insolvency

This Month

Smorgon stoush triggers gold mine fire sale

One of Australia’s most powerful families have pushed their Chinese partners in the Stawell gold mine into receivership.

  • Peter Ker
Lim Kim Hai, executive chairman of regional airline REX is in ASIC’s sights.

ASIC case against Rex throws up questions about $80m bailout

The corporate governance failings alleged by the regulator raise questions about what strings the government attached to its lifeline for the airline.

  • James Thomson
Deloitte partner Jason Tracy.

Alvarez & Marsal plunders Deloitte to erect local restructuring unit

Two years and 50 partners later, US bigwig Alvarez & Marsal is kicking off an Australian restructuring arm. And it has triggered a mass exodus from Deloitte’s offices.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Going up: Large contractor earnings are increasing, but insolvencies among smaller subcontractors are also growing.

Big builders enjoy recovery as insolvencies hammer small players

Even as large contractors report stronger earnings, the loss of smaller subcontractors cuts capacity and creates risks for the whole sector.

  • Michael Bleby

November

Sanjeev Gupta is the British industrialist behind GFG Alliance, which owns a string of steelmaking assets.

Administrators called in to probe Gupta’s troubled European empire

A UK court backed ArcelorMittal’s bid to launch an administration process for the parent company of six steelworks owned by Whyalla boss Sanjeev Gupta.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
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Richard White married Zena Nasser earlier this year.

The tech billionaire, his wife, her ex-husband and a big property deal

WiseTech Global founder Richard White has invested in many ventures, but a disused industrial site is one of the more surprising. It could be a lucrative one.

  • Max Mason, Kate McClymont and Nick McKenzie
Fortescue executive chairman Andrew Forrest

Forrest hands Hastings a reprieve after chairman capitulates on debt

The billionaire’s private Wyloo Metals business has agreed to withdraw a default notice that would have pushed the rare earths explorer into insolvency.

  • Peter Ker
Gold Coast, where sands are shifting in the apartment development market.

Risks rise in Gold Coast apartment development

As banks focus on smaller and more secure projects, developers of bigger projects are turning to riskier and more expensive sources of credit.

  • Michael Bleby

Forrest’s Wyloo declares solvency concerns over Hastings rare earths

Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals has challenged directors of rare earths aspirant Hastings to explain how their debt-laden company remains solvent.

  • Peter Ker
Hivery co-founder and CEO Jason Hosking started the company after working for Coca-Cola.

‘We gave it everything’: AI start-up calls it quits after raising $60m

Administrators are looking for buyers of the assets of fallen retail company Hivery, which had raised over $60 million from leading VC firms.

  • Paul Smith
The Whyalla steelworks is owned by GFG Alliance. Its furnace has been out of action for months.

Gupta owes $684,000 to suppliers in Sydney’s industrial heartland

An Australian business owned by one of India’s richest families is among those chasing payments, while Aurizon extends ban of iron ore transport at Whyalla.

  • Simon Evans
Jamie Crookes.

Student caps threaten accommodation work, builder Richard Crookes says

The family-owned builder reported a deeper loss of $21 million and said the owners gave it a $30 million injection earlier this year.

  • Michael Bleby
Sanjeev Gupta bought the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia in 2017 after previous owner Arrium went into administration.

Sanjeev Gupta strikes deal to stay afloat. For the fifth time

The embattled industrialist and Whyalla steelworks owner has offered his creditors yet another term sheet – one he says is necessary to save his UK operation.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
True North Copper is set to emerge from VA after an emergency equity injection.

Regal Funds-backed True North Copper in $60m equity recap

True North’s secured creditor Nebari Holdings, a mining credit fund co-founded by former Glencore traders Daniel Freuman and Clark Gillam, will be paid in cash and equity.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Sanjeev Gupta.

Gupta ‘has reached the end of the road’ on $300m debt, court told

San Francisco investment giant White Oak Global Advisors has given the Whyalla steelworks owner 10 weeks to reach a settlement. He says he’s confident he can.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
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Equitise co-founder Jonny Wilkinson had been trying to secure funding to keep the platform operating.

Crowdfunding platform Equitise calls in administrators

Equitise, which helps companies raise capital without hiring expensive investment bankers, fails to secure fresh funding needed to keep its operations afloat.

  • Paul Smith
Australian financier Lex Greensill has scuttled a project to buy a 502-acre tract of park and farmland next to his home in Saughall, England.

Lex Greensill scuttles English farm project

The fallen financier says he is – for now – no longer buying a 502-acre tract of park and farmland in his home village, Saughall, amid an entrenched local rift.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

October

Sanjeev Gupta is the steel magnate who has cobbled together a vast empire.

Sanjeev Gupta’s entire steelmaking empire is teetering on the brink

Questions hang over the future of the British businessman’s Whyalla operations as his European mills shut down or fend off insolvency.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Pel-Air is set to be sold to Toll Holdings.

Toll swoops on Rex’s air ambulance business

The logistics giant is on the verge of acquiring the collapsed carrier’s air ambulance business. Any buyer for the rest will need to upgrade an ageing fleet.

  • Ayesha de Kretser and Sarah Thompson
Swoop Aero co-founder Eric Peck had decided to step down before administrators were called in.

Drone start-up Swoop Aero crashes to earth, enters administration

Swoop Aero, a drone delivery start-up backed by CSIRO’s Main Sequence, is being restructured by administrators two years after turning down a $100m takeover.

  • Yolanda Redrup, Paul Smith and Tess Bennett

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/insolvency-jga