Huge list of creditors revealed for Aussie construction company Probuild

Construction giant Probuild folded last week with millions owed to employees alone - now the administrator’s lawyer has made a “chilling” revelation.

After Australian construction giant Probuild’s collapse sent shockwaves through the industry, administrators have revealed they are facing a “nightmarish” situation with at least 2300 individual creditors identified so far and more than $14 million owed to 784 workers.

However, the total amount owed overall by the company has yet to be revealed by administrators Deloitte, as they grapple with a number of issues, while 300 creditors were only uncovered on Tuesday.

Probuild’s parent company, WBHO Australia Group went under last week after its South African owner announced it was pulling all financial support, with 17 other companies also folding as part of the group.

A number of construction projects have been left in limbo. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

WBHO Australia, had boasted an annual revenue of $1.4 billion and its collapse has seen 18 major commercial and public sector projects in development around Australia left in limbo.

Hamish Austin, Deloitte’s lawyer, told the Federal Court that administrators were still trying to establish the company’s assets and creditors.

“The mind boggles at the amount of work the administrators have been undertaking and are required undertake to try and get across this type of administration,” he said, according the ABC.

“Where you’ve got the nightmarish prospect of construction projects ongoing in real time, and any disruption is likely to be extremely costly and add complexity to the exercise.”

Austin said the extreme weather battering the east coast of Australia and floodwaters were also making it hard to access some of the builder’s sites in Sydney and Brisbane as the administrator deals with the complex task of determining ownership of everything from leases to tools, scaffolding and portable buildings.

“One might call this a perfect storm but it’s certainly the final insult in trying to make sense of what is a highly fluid and complicated administration,” the Australian Financial Review reported Austin saying.

Determining ownership of items is a mammoth task for administrators. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

He added “trying to untangle” all the claims on equipment was particularly “chilling”.

Deloitte applied for a 21 day extension to produce a preliminary report on the collapse, which was granted by the court.

Austin said the best case scenario would be to maintain operations while administrators looked for a buyer of the business.

WBHO South Africa said it had injected millions to prop up the Australian arm, which had “severely depleted” its resources, and also blamed the government’s “hardline” stance with handling the pandemic for creating issues.

Administrators hope to continue projects while a buyer is sought.

Austin told the court that parent company had “effectively washed their hands of the Australian group”.

“They may no doubt may find some financial interest in participating at some point but that’s yet to emerge,” he said

A creditor’s meeting will be held by Deloitte on Friday with more than 500 registering to attend.