Something doesn’t add up: $1.5bn in red yet Jon Adgemis is driving wheels of fortune
Embattled pub baron Jon Adgemis faces bankruptcy – with apparently just $3.79 in his bank account – but doesn’t seem to be feeling the pinch as he approaches the biggest test of his life.
He’s the embattled pub baron facing bankruptcy – with apparently just $3.79 in his bank account – but Jon Adgemis doesn’t seem to be feeling the pinch as he drives his $240,000 Mercedes-Benz around Sydney, approaching the biggest test of his life.
The 47-year-old faces a $1.5bn debt claim, with the deal-maker on Friday hoping to get creditors to support a deal that would see them handed little more than 0.17c in the dollar.
He’s spent recent days lobbying his lenders to support a proposal that would see him avoid bankruptcy which would otherwise see him being banned from running a company, travelling overseas – or owning a luxury car.
On Wednesday The Australian found Mr Adgemis emerging from a tobacco store on Sydney’s Oxford street clutching a black plastic bag, after dodging journalists for weeks.
The reclusive tycoon declined to answer questions as to how he’s funding his extravagant lifestyle, and showed no remorse to any of those unsecured creditors.
Nor would he be drawn on the money owed to current employees – many of them mums and dads – of Linchpin after the group failed to make payroll.
According to a restructuring report for creditors, Mr Adgemis reported $3.79 in his bank account and a string of property and luxury cars worth nearly $9.5m in his personal insolvency disclosures revealed as part of his bankruptcy rescue plan proposal.
These include what bankruptcy trustees say is $527,500 worth of luxury cars: a 2015 Land Rover Range Rover, plus two financed cars, a 2021 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG, and a 2022 Land Rover Range Rover, currently being driven by his sister Chris Adgemis, formerly Walker. After repaying the finance companies, selling them would net just $160,000, trustees claim.
One online vehicle valuation source estimated some of the vehicles to be worth far more than they were listed in the report.
This is alongside a house in Sydney’s Rose Bay that he co-owns with his mother, and a property in Hurstville.
Mr Adgemis appears to be living it up in the Bondi penthouse of high-profile funds management player Will Vicars, after quitting the Point Piper trophy home known as the Bang and Olufsen mansion on Sydney Harbour last year.
The creditor’s report says his $60,833 a month rent is being paid by a “related party”.
Mr Adgemis has told his creditors he will tip in a further $3m, funded by a family member, to sweeten the deal.
This is all expected to see creditors take a 0.17c in the dollar return, or $2.6m total return of his mammoth debt burden, set to be paid over 13 months.
The operator of four Sydney venues previously owned by Mr Adgemis, Linchpin Group is also facing financial pain after former staff accused the business of unpaid entitlements and superannuation. Staff were told in June the group was facing a finance pinch, after there had been a “delay in receiving funds from our overseas lending partners”.
The meagre $3.79 in Mr Adgemis’s bank account most likely wouldn’t have covered a parking receipt on the dashboard of his car, let alone the cost to fill up his G-Wagon’s 96 litre tank, which at current prices would set him back around $172.80.
Mr Adgemis also wouldn’t be drawn as to whether he had any other funds or assets, or whether he was confident creditors would accept the offer.
These private credit lenders, along with investment banking heavyweight Deutsche Bank, will prove critical to a vote on Friday.
At least 75 per cent of value in Mr Adgemis’s creditors are required to sign off his proposal, requiring $1bn in backers for the troubled pub baron.
Deutsche Bank may swing Mr Adgemis’s vote, with the lender having refinanced much of his pub group in a $500m deal late last year.
The report to creditors reveals Deutsche Bank sits behind $371m in debts tied to the businessman.
This is alongside Sydney private credit lenders GEMI Investments, which disclosed almost $395m in debts to Mr Adgemis’s interests across 23 different guarantees.
Sources close to GEMI said the lender was still deciding which way to throw its vote, with a final call due on Thursday.
Mr Adgemis has been spotted across Sydney in recent weeks sitting down with business figures, in an attempt to lobby them in his favour.
He amassed an empire of more than 22 different venues across Sydney and Melbourne after a pub-buying spree in the depths of the pandemic.
These purchases were funded by private credit lenders eager to splurge on Mr Adgemis’s pitch, offering a new entrant to the crowded market of pub empires alongside the likes of the Oscars Group, the Laundy Family, and Justin Hemmes’ Merrivale.
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