Victory Offices has been placed in liquidation after being battered by the pandemic

Victory Offices has been placed in liquidation with the prospect of any return to shareholders unclear at this point.

Victory Offices was attempting to tap into the pre-pandemic popularity of co-working spaces.

The short ASX-listed life of co-working company Victory Offices, which once boasted locations in several high-profile sites such as Barangaroo and Collins St, has come to an end with the company placed in liquidation.

The company’s shares have been suspended from trade since November 8, with Victory placed in voluntary administration the following day as it struggled with higher overhead costs and “managing ongoing legal disputes with landlords’’.

Victory said at the time that the board believed the company was solvent, but “is likely to become insolvent at some point in the future’’.

On Tuesday Shane Cremin and Andrew Barnden from Rodgers Reidy were appointed as liquidators and said they were in the process of assessing the company’s financial situation.

“The liquidators have commenced their investigation into the company’s affairs,’’ the liquidators said in a statement to the ASX.

“At this early stage they do not have a view as to the likelihood of a return to shareholders.

“Any such return is dependent on the total amount of creditors’ claims and the realisations in the winding up.’’

READ MORE:PwC partner named in fraud case takes leave of absence

The company’s latest quarterly financial statements lodged with the ASX showed it had just $24,000 in the bank, but did have access to an $8m financing facility provided by executive chairman and majority shareholder Dan Baxter, which had been drawn down by $1.2m.

Victory listed in mid-2019 with a valuation north of $80m after raising $30m at $2 per share.

At the time it was chaired by former Victorian premier Steve Bracks, who resigned earlier this year along with non-executive director Kelly Humphreys and chief financial officer Keith Pollocks.

The company got off to a good start, beating its prospectus forecasts with $47m in revenues for the year and plans to expand from 19 locations on listing to 27 by the end of the 2020 financial year.

The pandemic hit in March 2020 however, and the company never recovered.

Victory shares went into a trading halt in April 2020, were suspended a few days later, and returned to the bourse in June, with a $15.3m entitlement offer at just 37.5c a share ­announced.

Only 57.6 per cent of the underwritten offer was taken up by eligible shareholders, and the full-year results, taking into account just a few short months of pandemic impact, fell to an underlying net loss of $400,000, and a statutory loss of $8.1m affected by impairments.

The company’s most recent full yer results, lodged with the ASX in September show it posted a $50.1m loss for the financial year, up from a $36.5m loss the year before, on revenue of $14.1m, down from $14.7m.

The underlying loss, taking out several one-offs including the impairment of receivables and gains on termination of leases, was $26.4m.

Its equity position had dropped from $33.8m in 2021 to negative $16.3m over the intervening 12 months.

In September, 10 of the company’s subsidiaries, which appeared to be associated with sites it had closed in the past couple of years, went into administration and its financial report also said it was “currently subject to legal proceedings of a winding up application brought on by a landlord of a closed location’’.

Victory shares last traded at 4.2c.

Originally published as Victory Offices has been placed in liquidation after being battered by the pandemic