Construction company PBS Building may owe creditors $40m administrators reveal in meeting

The full extent of the fallout from the collapse of troubled national construction company PBS Building is only just being realised, as the amount it owes has risen to a staggering $40m, or 60 per cent more than initially expected.

• In detail: Qld builder collapses

The amount owed by troubled national construction company PBS Building has risen to a staggering $40m, or 60 per cent more than initially expected administrators have revealed.

Award-winning PBS on March 7 abandoned its building projects across the country — including five active worksites in Queensland — amid mounting losses, labour shortage and rising costs.

Administrators RSM Australia, in its first meeting of creditors on Friday night, confirmed the estimate of money owed to creditors had risen from $25m to $40m.

A detailed creditors report into PBS construction entities is expected to be complete by mid-April, though RSM Australia partner Jonathon Colbran warned the time frame could change due to the “complexity of the administration”.

It was also previously revealed the collapse of PBS was set to become the first major test of Queensland’s landmark construction industry reforms ensuring tradies get paid, as the company is the first to go under with state-sanctioned trust accounts in place.

Mr Colbran confirmed the detailed creditors report would include the outcome of investigations into the project trust accounts held by PBS.

The Curl development at Bokarina on the Sunshine Coast, a project by PBS which announced it was entering voluntary administration on Tuesday.

It was also confirmed the Queensland Building and Construction Commission would be undertaking a compliance audit of the state-based trust accounts in parallel to investigations by administrators.

“These trust accounts were frozen from the date of the appointment of the Administrators. We are now identifying which projects the accounts relate to, which creditors may have rights to the funds in these accounts and then reconciling these funds,’’ Mr Colbran said.

“To date 374 claims have been lodged by creditors – 177 in the ACT, 131 in NSW and 66 in Queensland. This number is also expected to rise and fall until the Administrators are able to verify the claims.”

The QBCC public project trust account register revealed PBS had two set up – one for the $90m Latitude25 project in Hervey Bay and another for The Curl at Bokarina on the Sunshine Coast.

PBS also had a retention account, used for holding cash withheld until it is due to be paid.

If the system functions the way it theoretically should, money owed to subbies on the Latitude25 and The Curl projects will be held securely in those trust accounts ready to be paid out.

RSM Australia, in the meeting attended by 180 PBS creditors, also revealed moves had been made at seven of the 24 active project sites to recommence work — with one of those in Queensland, five in NSW an 11 in the ACT.

PBS had 56 other projects which had been completed and were not in a defect liability period.