Liquidator says GCB Constructions subcontractors to receive less than 11c in the dollar amid $52m failure

The liquidator of a key Gold Coast builder, which collapsed owing more than $50m, has revealed how much of their hard-earned cash subcontractors are likely to get back, and it’s not pretty.

Subcontractors of failed Gold Coast builder GCB Constructions will get less than 11 cents for every dollar owed in the $52m collapse – and it could take up to two years to get it – the liquidator has revealed.

In his latest report, liquidator David Stimpson of SV Partners said GCB, which stopped paying tax more than a year before it went under, had just $791,220 in assets to cover its $52m in debts.

The outlook is more promising for staff and secured creditors of the company, who will receive between 51 per cent and 100 per cent of what they’re owed.

GCB Construction site at Vantage Ashmore on the Gold Coast before it went into liquidation. Picture Glenn Hampson

The liquidator reported potential insolvent trading and unfair preference payments made by GCB, which he added had likely been insolvent from January 1, 2023.

“Our investigations indicate the director may have breached these sections of the Act,” the report said.

“The director continued to trade the business and incurred debts at a time when he had knowledge, or ought to have knowledge, of the Company’s insolvency.

“The director failed to ensure the company maintained its statutory taxation lodgements and make payment of statutory debts.”

The company’s sole director Trent Clark publicly said his company was solvent as recently as June, while five companies joined legal action to wind it up and it battled developers of two of its major projects.

Trent Clark, managing director of GCB Constructions

Major secured creditor, NAB, will retain funds held in all 22 of GCB’s bank accounts – many of which were linked to individual GCB projects.

GCB went into liquidation in November, after entering voluntary administration on July 24.

Construction of more than 500 apartments in 13 projects were left in limbo in the collapse.

Debts range in value from a few hundred dollars to a few million, with small and medium trade businesses among the hardest hit.

Some family-owned local businesses are owed six-figure sums.

GCB Construction site at 309 Golden Four Drive Tugun before it went into liquidation. Picture Glenn Hampson

Administrators found the Gold Coast company stopped paying tax more than a year ago and defaulted on a $10m loan in the months before its ­licence was suspended.

A previous report from the liquidators said almost $72m in payments made by GCB to subcontractors and suppliers as far back as November 2022 could be “clawed back” and shared between all creditors.