Liberal lobbyist Simone Holzapfel’s Shac Communications and husband’s development in debt
COMPANIES linked to a controversial Liberal lobbyist are suffering financial difficulties, affecting a multimillion-dollar housing development and leaving their directors scrambling to clear debts on the Gold Coast.
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COMPANIES linked to a controversial Liberal lobbyist are suffering financial difficulties, affecting a multimillion-dollar housing development and leaving their directors scrambling to clear debts on the Gold Coast.
Simone Holzapfel, 43, manages Robinson Prospect, the company jointly owned by her husband Matthew Karl Robinson, 53, and his brother James.
Both Ms Holzapfel and Mr Robinson say they have either already paid, or made arrangements to pay, debts owed to creditors of their companies. They said their development, at Terranora on the southern Tweed, was still on track.
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Robinson Prospect is the subject of strike-off action by ASIC, while another company owned by Mr Robinson and Ms Holzapfel, Horseshoe Properties, is under external administration after a Nerang environmental consultancy took it to court over alleged unpaid debts.
Robinsons Prospect is developing the Huonbrook Estate, which property records show is owned by Horseshoe Properties.
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Ms Holzapfel is listed on Robinson Prospect marketing material and on her Facebook profile as the manager of that company, and is also a registered lobbyist for Horseshoe Properties in Queensland and NSW.
Ms Holzapfel’s own lobbying and PR organisation Shac Communications, which shares office space with Robinsons Prospect at Mariners Cove, also appears to have scaled down its operations, moving from larger premises at Bundall and losing the bulk of its staff.
Ms Holzapfel, who has worked as an adviser to Mayor Tom Tate and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said Shac was still operating but could not explain why her office was unattended and its staff had left.
“Shac’s a consulting business so, yep,” she said. “It’s operating.”
Asked whether Shac owed money to contractors, staff or landlords, Ms Holzapfel said it had “some creditors that have got bills that are being paid”.
“There’s a couple that are being paid money, they’re in arrangements to be paid,” she said.
“That’s what I’m working through.”
Shac Communications and its owner have a contentious history, with Ms Holzapfel called as a witness at a Crime and Corruption Commission hearing last year for her involvement in the 2016 Gold Coast City Council elections.
However, there is no suggestion that Ms Holzapfel engaged in any criminal or corrupt conduct.
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Shac collapsed in 2013 with debts of $437,000, after its name had been changed to Coolabird.
The current company, Shac Communications, was created with Ms Holzapfel as sole director and shareholder in 2012.
In mid-2013, Ms Holzapfel donated $114,000 in 12 payments to Federal MP’s Stuart Robert’s “Fadden Forum’’ ahead of the federal election.
The former Prime Ministerial staffer for Tony Abbott married Mr Robinson on their vast property at Gleneagle, near Beaudesert State High School, in June last year.
Guests at the ceremony included Mayor Tate, city planning boss Cameron Caldwell and Louis Chen, director of casino developer ASF.
Suppliers for the wedding were also forced to chase the pair for their payments — which Ms Holzapfel yesterday said had been cleared — almost.
“It’s paid. There’s one that’s not paid — it’s been resolved in the next 24 hours — it’s a part payment that needs to be paid,” she said.
“I’m trying to understand what you’re trying to do here.”
The 126ha property on the Mount Lindesay Hwy was purchased for $2 million in January last year by Ms Holzapfel’s company Amalfi Invest.
Company records show Amalfi Invest is also the subject of strike-off action by the corporate regulator. ASIC would not disclose why specific strike-off actions were undertaken.
The property, which includes an eight-bedroom, five-bathroom farmhouse, was listed for sale by mortgagee online in April this year but has been taken off the market since.
Mr Robinson said the mortgagee had wrongly claimed a default and had been ordered by the Supreme Court to take down the advertising. He said he planned to pursue the mortgagee in court.
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Incidentally, Amalfi purchased the property from a company directed by global financier Andrew Ipkendanz, whose late father Graham used to live there.
Mr Ipkendanz had six months earlier sold the most expensive house in the country for 2016, offloading a mansion in Sydney’s Vaucluse for $47.8 million to the boss of music group Sanity Ray Itaoui and his wife Rachel.
Mr Robinson is part owner of six-year-old gelding Who’s Your Daddy, which is under renowned trainer John Wallace and has five career wins and prizemoney totalling $75,400.
Through one of his companies “It Grows on Trees” he also owns an apartment at Currumbin he bought for $970,000 from former Gold Coast Titans coach John Cartwright in 2015.
Another development company jointly directed and owned by Mr Robinson, Fraser Drive Investments No1, is also in external administration with alleged debts of $360,000 after a creditor took court action.
That company and a related company, Fraser Drive Investments No 2, were developing a $50 million project in South Tweed, and were fined $15,000 in 2016 for failing to properly protect an Aboriginal heritage area in 2016.
Ms Holzapfel said she didn’t know what was going to happen to the Huonbrook project, on land owned by Horseshoe Properties.
“You’d have to ask my husband,” she said.
Mr Robinson said the development had been hampered when a contractor collapsed and when another contractor made a multimillion-dollar error, which he planned to pursue via legal action.
He said a private company had agreed to loan Huonbrook Estate $5 million to allow the company to continue to trade, and sent the Bulletin a copy of the mortgage agreement dated June 10, 2018 that had the lender and some of the terms redacted.
“It is something that happened which was outside our control,” he said.
“We have come to an agreement with the receiver and we are moving forward.
“We have about $230,000 in unpaid creditors and we are on top of it.
“It’s been a hard time. I’m contrite about it, I’m apologetic — but we’re on top of it.”
Mr Robinson said the refinancing would be settled in a week and the debts would be paid.
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