Financial status for Qld’s biggest builders in spotlight after 2213 go into administration in past year
A staggering 2213 construction companies entered administration in the 2023 financial year, putting the health of those left standing under the spotlight. We run the rule over 11 of the big players
Gold Coast
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As soaring construction demand continues amid high costs, the financial strength of the sector’s big hitters has never been more crucial.
A staggering 2213 construction companies entered administration in the 2023 financial year – including GCB Constructions, PBS Building, Porter Davis, NPM and more – leaving staff, lenders, buyers and subcontractors hundreds of millions out of pocket.
Using Australian Securities and Investment Commission documents and QBCC licence records, we’ve put the health of some of the state’s biggest existing builders under the microscope.
We’ve also examined the Federal Government’s Payment Times Register to find out how long big builders say they are taking to pay their subbies and suppliers.
Not all companies below are required to publicly lodge financial reports, but those who are required were due to lodge by October 31 for the 2022-23 financial year.
Here’s the current status for some of the biggest builders:
McNab
Trading company: McNab Developments (Qld)
QBCC Licensed maximum revenue category: Over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: 2020-21: 112 jobs at $42.18m; and 2021-22: 82 jobs at $28.94m; and 2022-23: 48 jobs at $24.49m.
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 35.7 per cent (on standard terms of 61 days)
Status: McNab’s FY23 financial report, lodged by director Michael McNab on October 30, revealed a net profit of $7.51m, up from $4.78m the previous year.
Revenue increased to $489.2m from $325.28m in FY22 and Mc Nab has net assets of $32.2m, up from $24.7m.
No dividends were paid to Mr McNab, the company’s sole shareholder, in FY23.
The director had received a $400,000 dividend in FY22 and a $2.7m dividend the previous year.
The Toowoomba-based company has continued its work on major Gold Coast projects, including the sold-out $85m, 22-level White Main Beach.
McNab also has plans for the $77m, 22-storey Elements Budds Beach, in partnership with sculptor Liam Hardy and wife Yvette, who own the 1012 sqm site on the corner of Birt and Oak avenues.
The project was approved by the council in December but is not being actively marketed, with talk in the suburb that the site was being quietly shopped with other developers.
Hutchinson Builders
Trading company: J.Hutchinson
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: Over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: 2020-21 76 jobs at $11.04m; 2021-22: 85 jobs at $33.34m; 2022-23: 35 jobs at $14.8. Fifteen jobs for $4.84m have been logged for the current financial year to date.
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 94.6 per cent
Status: The company known as “Hutchies” is Queensland’s largest and is responsible for some of the country’s biggest civil and commercial projects, including schools, hospitals, churches, high-rise office blocks, residential towers, service stations, Coles and Bunnings stores, airport terminals, sport centres and hotels.
The company’s net profit for the 2023 financial year fell almost 93 per cent to $1.34m, despite revenue increasing almost $500m to $3.12bn.
As the results were released, chairman Scott Hutchinson said fixed-price contracts on the Gold Coast during the 2021 boom had “killed us”.
“It sounds counterintuitive but in construction when turnover goes up profit can go down because you are caught in these fixed-price contracts,” he told the Courier-Mail.
Hutchies was this year named the nation’s second largest apartment builder with 1332 built, narrowly ahead of the Mirvac Group with 1258.
Recent Gold Coast projects have included the $135m four-tower residential project The Lanes at Mermaid Waters; Beach House at Broadbeach; $58m Mosaic at Broadbeach; and The Star’s $275m tower one.
Hutchies is also building the $150m Eve Residences at Labrador, which it took on after Condev collapsed in May 2022.
Tomkins
Trading company: Tomkins Commercial & Industrial Builders
QBCC licensed revenue category: Over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: None recorded on licence since 2017-18
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (July-December 2022 – no reporting since): 83.1 per cent
Status: Tomkins has transitioned much of its business to commercial and industrial work in recent years, with warehouses, medical centres and apartment towers making up the majority of the company workbook.
Third generation builder Mike Tomkins is sole director and shareholder of the company, which employs 153 people.
The company’s FY23 financial report, lodged on September 29, revealed a slim profit of $1.67m, down from $4.34m the previous year.
Revenue was slightly higher at $211.62m, up from $206.56m and the company reported net assets of $31.11m.
Mr Tomkins was not paid a dividend for FY23, after receiving $2m in FY22 and $2.05m in FY21.
Tomkins projects have included Midwater Main Beach, Homeworld Helensvale, Harbour One Sanctuary Cove and multiple buildings at Brisbane Airport.
Metricon Homes
Trading company: Metricon Homes Qld
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: Over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: 2020-21: 1574 jobs at $509m; 2021-22: 1402 jobs at $563.1m; and 2022-23: 375 jobs at $220.53m. So far in FY24, Metricon has logged 193 jobs for $120.85m.
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 92.2 per cent
Status: Metricon was this year named the nation’s top home builder for the eighth year in a row, starting construction on 4693 homes across the country in 2022-23, down from 5969 in 2021-22.
Metricon has not filed any financial reports with ASIC or published them on its website, and declined to provide financial results when asked.
Metricon CEO Brad Duggan said the company was “tired of talking about the past”.
“Our business is in a very confident and strong position; we have been profitable for the past eight months and we are forecasting a significant profit for the 2024 financial year,” he said.
“We are focused on the future, delivering for our customers and being the best builder in Australia.”
The company‘s owners last year injected $30m to keep it afloat after a gruelling stretch which included the sudden death of its founder and CEO Mario Biasin in May 2022.
Its struggles saw an end to a stadium naming rights deal with the Gold Coast Suns.
Homecorp
Trading company: Homecorp Constructions
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: Over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: 2020-21: 645 jobs at $155.76m; 2021-22: 500 jobs at $158.55m; and 2022-23: 323 jobs at $116.01m. So far in FY24, it’s logged 78 jobs for $27.59m.
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (July-December 2022 – no reporting since): 100 per cent (on 14-day standard terms).
Status: The Benowa-based construction company, part of Ron Bakir’s Homecorp Property Group, is majority owned by a subsidiary of motoring giant Toyota and is behind some of the biggest house and land estates in Queensland, including The Heights at Pimpama, The Pines at Yeppoon and Greenwood Village in Ipswich.
The company, which employs 175 people, has not lodged a financial report with ASIC since May last year, when it revealed its results for the 2021 calendar year.
For the year to December 2021, Homecorp reported $122.63m revenue and $23.23m in net assets.
Net profit was up from the previous year: $6.39m compared to $2.81m in 2020.
The company paid dividends totalling $841,710 to its multiple shareholders, up from $751,922 in 2019. Homecorp declined to publicly provide more recent financial results.
Multiplex
Trading company: Multiplex Constructions Qld
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: Over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: None recorded on licence
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 51.9 per cent
Status: Multiplex is responsible for some of the Gold Coast’s largest developments, including the $1.4bn Jewel project, which it completed in 2020.
It’s also been appointed builder of the new 404-bed public hospital at Coomera and is building Sammut Group’s Coast development at Broadbeach.
Directed by Perth resident John Flecker and Sydneysider Margaret Redwin, the company is ultimately owned by Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management.
Multiplex Constructions Qld, the holder of the company’s QBCC licence, last lodged a financial report with ASIC in September 2022 for the 2021 calendar year.
It reported $3.8m net profit from $541.5m revenue – down from the previous year’s result of $14.37m from $196.3m revenue.
At the end of 2022, its reported net assets were $33.7m
It has a $290m contract for Tower Two at The Star Gold Coast, a $200m tower at Surfers Paradise, is working on the mammoth Queens Wharf development in Brisbane, and has built a host of other large-scale projects in the state capital.
Philip Usher Constructions
Trading company: Philip Usher Constructions
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: Over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: 2020-21: 197 jobs at $38.07m; 2021-22: 3 jobs at $11.23m; 2022-23: 109 jobs at $14.86m; and 2023-24 to date: four jobs at $425,000.
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 75 per cent (on standard terms of 45 days)
Status: Phil Usher is considered one of the Gold Coast’s richest people and is head of the residential developer and builder which bears his name.
Construction projects have included the H2O and Sky apartment buildings in Southport, as well as houses and townhouses nationwide.
Assets of the diverse business include a substantial pastoral business encompassing about 1.2 million hectares of cattle properties across five Queensland stations.
The company also operates aged care facilities around southeast Queensland.
The latest financial report lodged with ASIC for the company was for the 2019-20 financial year, when it logged $170.14m revenue, net profit of $33.13m and net assets of $455.9m.
The company paid franked dividends of $5m to Mr Usher in 2019 and $15.9m in 2020.
The company is yet to respond to the Gold Coast Bulletin’s request for more recent financial information.
Raptis
Trading companies: Ezra Constructions, Garnet Constructions
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: $30m-$60m
Three-year insured residential work record:none reported for Ezra since 2017-18 with 38 jobs at $6.03m; none reported for Garnet since 2016-17 with 57 jobs at $8.81m
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023):Neither company has reported to the Payment Times Register
Status: Numerous development and construction companies have traded under the Raptis name for more than 40 years, with founder James Raptis at the helm and son Evan and wife Helen also part of the family operation.
The group is behind some of the Gold Coast’s most recognisable buildings.
Its Queensland builder licence holders, Ezra Constructions and Garnet Constructions, have never lodged financial reports with ASIC.
Ezra is currently building Pearl Main Beach and Sterling at Broadbeach.
Garnet’s ultimate parent company, ASX-listed Raptis Group, has shifted its focus from direct development, deriving its $354,000 net profit from management rights of buildings developed by private companies of the Raptis family.
Assets of Mr Raptis, 77, some family members and a number of his companies were frozen by the Federal Court two years ago amid a $110m tax probe which remains unresolved.
The case has been adjourned 14 times and is next listed for hearing in February.
The asset freeze has not stopped the developer from forging ahead with major projects including Pearl, as well as the Sterling and Gallery Residences projects at Broadbeach.
Mirvac
Trading company: Mirvac Constructions (Qld)
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: over $240m
Three-year insured residential work record: none reported since 2009-10
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 79.8 per cent
Status: Mirvac’s ASX-listed parent company logged $1.97bn revenue for FY23, down from $2.3bn the previous year.
Costs bit the bottom line hard, driving a $165m net loss, down from a $906m profit in FY22.
Locally, the year saw Mirvac complete the 2000-lot, $522.8m Gainsborough Greens development at Pimpama, which included the popular Bim’bimba Park.
Meriton
Trading company: Karimbla Construction Services (Qld)
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: $120m-$240m
Three-year insured residential work record: None recorded on licence.
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 33 per cent
Status: Private company Meriton is founded by apartment supremo Harry Triguboff, who sits high on the 2023 Rich List with an estimated $23.8bn fortune.
Gold Coast projects include the Sundale at Southport, Ocean at Surfers Paradise and has planned the $700m Iconica Supertower and another 1000-unit project at the former Vomitron site at Surfers Paradise.
In the past year, Meriton has shelved plans for a supertower at Broadbeach but forged ahead with the two mammoth projects at Surfers, with more than 1800 apartments between them.
The Karimbla company which holds Meriton’s Queensland builder licence has not lodged any financials with ASIC, and Meriton Properties hasn’t lodged one since 2018-19.
Meriton Apartments ranked fourth on this year’s list with 2267 new homes built and was also the top ranked apartment builder in the country.
Coral Homes
Trading companies: Coral Homes, Coral Homes Qld
QBCC licensed maximum revenue category: $120m-$240m and over $240m respectively
Three-year insured residential work record
Coral Homes: 2020-21: 68 jobs at $23.95m; 2021-22: 29 jobs at $13.17m; 2022-23: 19 at $11.61m; and 2023-24 to date: 339 jobs at $149.89m.
Coral Homes Qld: 2020-21: 938 jobs at $282.43m; 2021-22: 575 jobs at $218.39m; 2022-23: 621 jobs at $263.86m; and 2023-24 to date: 38 jobs at $20.45m.
Number of invoices paid within 30 days (Jan-June 2023): 79 per cent for Coral Homes and 76 per cent for the Queensland entity, both on 19-day standard terms.
Status: The Varsity Lakes-based builder was founded in 1990 by carpenter Paul Sweeney.
Coral Homes Qld, which offers fixed-price contracts to customers, last lodged financials with ASIC in November 2020, for the 2019-20 year.
In that report, it logged $160.44m in revenue, net profit of $10.26m and net assets of $19.75m.
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