Failed building firm sold Ferrari for tidy profit

Gold Coast building firm Pivotal Homes sold a top-of-the-line Ferrari for a tidy profit before it collapsed earlier this year, creditors have been told.

Failed Gold Coast building firm Pivotal Homes was motoring around in a pretty fancy set of wheels before it went bust back in May owing about $6.1m.

Creditors were told last week that the 17-year-old company owned a Ferrari that was sold for a tidy profit before it collapsed.

A report to creditors produced by liquidator Chris Cook, of Worrells, reveals the Ferrari was purchased from a garage for $410,000 in August 2018 and sold back to the same outlet in February this year for $480,000.

Cook points out the car was offloaded at fair market value and the company has received the sales proceeds in full.

Pivotal went under with 103 homes under varying stages of completion with a further 177 contracts signed but construction not started.

Cook says Worrells is working with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) to allow customers to access funds under the Home Warranty Scheme.

Creditors are likely to receive between 11 cents and 20 cents in every dollar owed to them once the liquidation is complete.

The failure of the firm has been blamed on the soaring cost of building materials making fixed-price house contracts unviable and disruptions from flooding.

Gold Coast building firm Pivotal Homes owned a Ferrari which it sold earlier this year before it collapsed.

Law Firm Goes Green

Lawyers have been accused on occasions of producing a lot of hot air, but one leading Brisbane law firm has come up with a novel way to reduce their carbon footprint.

Bennett & Philp Lawyers says it is committed to offsetting 100 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions through a partnership with AgCoTech, a firm that describes itself as a “carbon neutral social development goal provider.”

The arrangement involves Bennett & Philp purchasing carbon credits that funds AgCoTech supply of special dietary supplements for cattle to farms in Laos.

The supplements improve fodder digestibility and suppress methane output by cattle by up to 475kg per 20kg of supplement.

Bennett & Philp managing director Lance Pollard says it’s a six-figure investment the firm is happy to make, especially given the supplements also increase the health of the animals, resulting in more income for farmers.

An independent audit of Bennett & Philp’s annual carbon emissions reveals it produces more than 119 tonnes of greenhouse gas.

AgCoTech will supply special dietary supplements for cattle to farms in Laos.

It already has successfully offset 94 tonnes of carbon through AgCoTech in the last financial year alone and has since committed to wiping out its total carbon footprint by 2023.

City Beat hears Pollard has literally hit the ground running in his attempt to reduce the firm’s carbon footprint by jogging into his CBD office every day from his home in Indooroopilly.

“My kids are grown up now so I have been able to reignite my interest in running,” says the super athletic 56-year-old. “It also help motivate the staff.”

Pollard says the firm is working in other ways to reduce carbon emissions, including cutting paper usage and moving into a more environmentally friendly office space in Ann St.

Northern Exposure

National law shop Moray & Agnew is heading to Far North Queensland with the opening of an office in sunny Cairns.

Veteran lawyer Andrew Carr is the lucky legal eagle selected to head up the office, which will help the firm expand its government and native title work in the tropical north.

Carr has more than a quarter of a century experience working for councils, statutory authorities and mining companies throughout the far north including the Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York Peninsula and the Torres Strait.

He is an expert primarily in native title, cultural heritage, planning and state land tenure. Moray & Agnew managing partner Geoffrey Connellan says the regional expansion of the firm will help bring national knowledge and support to the north.

Andrew Kerr will be in charge of Moray & Agnew in Cairns.