Gold Coast developer Jim Raptis clears tax bill hurdle to ready company for return to business

GOLD Coast developer Jim Raptis has converted a $30 million tax bill into just a $6 debt, opening the way for his company to return to business.

Creditor meeting Rapcivic Contractors Pty Ltd at Gold Coast International Hotel , Jim Raptis

GOLD Coast developer Jim Raptis has converted a $30 million tax bill into just a $6 debt, opening the way for his company to return to business.

Mr Raptis will not say how he managed to have the bill reduced, other than that it was “a lengthy, complex issue (and) at the completion of due legal process, the Tax Office has substantially reviewed the matter”.

It is the second time the Raptis Group has made a phoenix-like rebirth from the ashes of financial disaster, with the way now clear for the company to resume trading on the stock exchange. “This allows Raptis Group Ltd to recommence its core business of property development,” the company said yesterday.

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Jim Raptis has converted a monster tax bill to open the way for his Raptis Group to return to business.

The Tax Office declined to comment.

In 2013 Mr Raptis was hit with the hefty bill after the High Court overturned a Federal Court decision relating to GST payments on the $400 million Chevron Renaissance project in Surfers Paradise.

Raptis Group shares last traded on September 12, 2008 when the company was delisted after it collapsed for the second time in less than two decades, owing almost $1 billion. The group was spared liquidation after striking a deal with creditors.

The first meltdown, in the early 1990s, saw it placed in the hands of administrators but it worked its way out of strife through a scheme of arrangement with creditors.

A return to trading may prove to be third time lucky for the Greece-born Mr Raptis, who moved to the Gold Coast in 1973 and launched his career building three-storey walk-ups.

He went on to develop iconic Glitter Strip high-rises including The Moroccan, The Phoenician, Bel Air, Chevron Renaissance, The Hilton Hotel and Southport Central.

Mr Raptis said the company’s administrators were now ready to distribute 40 million Raptis Group shares held in trust under agreements with creditors that had enabled the group to stay afloat.

Mr Raptis said shareholders also would underwrite a rights issue to raise $1 million for working capital.

He said “a development project is available for the company to recommence operations”.

The project was not disclosed but Mr Raptis said it was on the Coast and he was looking to develop mid-rise rather than high-rise towers.