Grocon loaned owner Daniel Grollo $11.5m before collapse

Building giant Grocon loaned owner Daniel Grollo $11.5m before its collapse, an early creditors report lodged with the corporate cop shows.

Grocon chief Daniel Grollo

Grocon extended owner Daniel Grollo an $11.5m loan which has not been paid back, an early creditors report into the collapsed building giant shows.

The report by administrator KordaMentha lodged with the corporate cop also shows the Melbourne building group – which has overseen Gold Coast projects including the Commonwealth Games Athletes Village – owes the taxman $15m.

A separate update provided to creditors lists ANZ, National Australian Bank, Bank of Queensland and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as secured creditors to the Grocon group of companies.

Other secured creditors include real estate investor Lasalle Investment Management Australia and a now deregistered company linked to Melbourne-based real estate investor Qualitas whose backers include prominent business figure Carol Schwartz.

Grocon chief Daniel Grollo.

Some debts are historical in nature with National Australia Bank not owed any money from Grocon, having previously funded one of its Melbourne projects.

KordaMentha is working through a complicated administration process covering 39 companies with a complex web of inter-company lending.

A section of the early creditors report titled money owed to the company lists Daniel Grollo as having received $11.5m in a “related party loan”.

It does not say when the loan was made and lists as “unknown” the estimated amount recoverable. The report also lists more than 40 other inter-company loans extended by the numerous companies within the Grocon group.

Grocon said it was not able to comment on the loan to Mr Grollo given the companies were in administration.

“The administrator will report to creditors on these matters,” it said in a statement.

Grocon built Melbourne’s Eureka Tower.

The report also shows Grocon employees are owed $1.9m in holiday and long-service leave entitlements. Wages and superannuation are listed as having being paid in full.

The report lists the Grocon group as owing $14.2m in GST payments and $1.8m in other outstanding taxes. It does not list any of the banks as creditors, indicating they are yet to present their claim to the administrator or are not owed money.

Other major creditors to emerge include insurer Assetinsure, owned $2.46m, and Telstra owed close to $322,000.

The report shows Grocon had $614,814 in cash in an ANZ bank account when it called in administrators late last month.