Elias Jreissati’s offer to creditors of flailing Bensons Property Group scheduled for crucial vote
He came to the Gold Coast bearing cases of fine wine, valuable artworks and a million-dollar donation. Three years later, Elias Jreissati will have to reach even further into his pockets. Read why.
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Wealthy Melbourne businessman Elias Jreissati came to the Gold Coast in 2022 bearing expensive gifts – cases of fine wine, valuable artworks and a million-dollar donation to Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts.
Three years later, with his development company Benson’s Property Group reporting debts of more than $813m, he’ll have to reach even further into his pockets.
Bensons went into voluntary administration on December 27, while receivers Keith Crawford and Matthew Caddy of McGrathNicol were appointed on January 10 on behalf of secured lender Perpetual Corporate Trust.
Creditors will find out how deep those pockets are next Tuesday, when administrator Craig Shepard of KordaMentha unveils a proposal to hose down the debts and save the company.
They’ll vote on the proposal on February 7, either ending the administration with no resolution – an unlikely scenario given the receivership – accepting whatever return they’re offered by the Jreissatis, or plunging the group into liquidation.
Benson’s is currently developing nine projects worth $1bn, including the $485m, 41-storey Chevron One at Surfers Paradise, which it owns, and where Mr Jreissati had reserved the $50m penthouse for himself and wife Colleen.
The couple have also owned a penthouse in the exclusive northern Gold Coast enclave of Ephraim Island, which they used as a regular escape from Melbourne’s winters.
Major construction firm Icon, part of Japan’s $11bn Kajima Corporation and builder of the Chevron project, is among the 150 creditors.
Construction of the project is still under way, with the receivers expecting a “favourable offer” from the Jreissati family and choosing a “business as usual” approach instead of selling assets.
In 2022, Mr Jreissati donated $1m to HOTA and one of the art hub’s galleries was named in honour of his family.
Valuable pieces from the family’s breathtaking collection of Australian art were loaned to the gallery for an exhibition the same year. HOTA is now a $125,000 creditor of Benson’s, according to the reports filed with ASIC.
The HOTA donation came 20 years after the former takeaway shop worker gifted $1m to the National Gallery of Victoria, where another gallery bears his family’s name and where another $400m of projects are in limbo.
Buyers in the Chevron project were gifted $15,000 worth of wine from the Jreissati family’s Yarra Valley vineyard Levantine Hill when they signed up.
Quizzed on the winery’s relationship to Benson’s at the first meeting of creditors, Mr Shepard said there wasn’t one.
The company’s debts are complex – with $209m of it made up of unsecured guarantees to seven lenders and investors.
More than 50 unsecured note holders are owed $36m between them while 49 trades and other unsecured creditors are owed $239m. Secured creditors, aside from employees, are owed $328m.
Many of the creditors are related companies of Mr Jreissati – including Yarra Valley Grape Sales, which is owed $57m and is solely directed by him.
Chevron One was scheduled for completion in October this year.
Originally published as Elias Jreissati’s offer to creditors of flailing Bensons Property Group scheduled for crucial vote
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