Failed construction firm Ebert's creditors drop Grant Thornton, appoint BDO as liquidator

Tuesday, 13 November 2018

Ebert now owes at estimated $100 million to creditors.

Creditors of failed construction firm Ebert have booted out the liquidators appointed by the shareholders and replaced them with a more 'independent' option.

Ebert went into receivership in August owing about $45 million, nearly $34m of which was to unsecured creditors, but the amount claimed now totals about $100m.

Tempest Litigation Funders has been holding informal creditor meetings as part of a campaign to replace liquidator Grant Thornton, chiefly because it was appointed by Ebert's shareholders which include Beatrice Ebert and Ebert director kelvin Hale's wife Bronwyn Hale.

The decision was made through a vote at a creditors' meeting held by Grant Thornton liquidators David Ruscoe and Timothy Downes on Tuesday afternoon.

* Ebert creditors get chance to roll company's liquidator

* Tempest director puts his case to Ebert creditors for a change of liquidators**

At the creditor meeting Ruscoe said Grant Thornton would co-operate with the new liquidator in its investigation.

Ruscoe said Ebert had about 1000 creditors, and Grant Thornton had spent $50,000 so far in the liquidation process.

While Grant Thornton were liquidators, it received claims totalling about $100 million, he said.

Tempest director Damien Grant, a liquidator himself, had suggested BDO, Mainzeal's liquidator, take over the investigation because it had been courageous enough to take Mainzeal's directors to court.

Grant said was pleased with the change and had big expectations for BDO.

Tempest Litigation Funders director Damien Grant said was pleased with the change in liquidators.

'This is an excellent result because it shows the creditors are willing to come out and support a insolvency firm that is prepared to take action to enforce the rights of creditors in a situation like this,' Grant said.

'It would be excellent if we could see a change in the way insolvency practitioners think about their business.'

Unsecured creditor Keith Blind, who voted for the change, said he was hopeful BDO would take a different approach to a liquidator appointed by the shareholders.

'Whatever way you look at it, somebody independent is somebody independent,' Blind said.

BDO liquidator Iain Shephard he was ambivalent of the case until recently.

He said this week he would be in talks with Grant Thornton and would put out a circular to formally announce the takeover.

'The beauty of co-operation is there will be less time reinventing the wheel.'

The $30 million project for the new Indian High Commission in Wellington's parliamentary precinct was headed by Ebert Construction.

Its not the only action seen in the aftermath of Ebert's collapse.

A disgruntled developer had erected billboards in Wellington urging Kelvin Hale and founder Dennis Ebert to pay back their subcontractors.

Wellington developer Richard Burrell's nephew is a subcontractor owed $700,000 by Ebert.

It urged Kelvin Hale and Dennis Ebert to sell off apartments held in another company, Habia, to help pay back Ebert's struggling subcontractors.

Habia is half-owned by Beatrice Ebert and Michael Finnigan, a lawyer in New Plymouth, and half-owned by Hale's wife Bronwyn and Donald Forsyth, a Wellington lawyer, according to CoreLogic.

A second billboard drew attention to Ebert director Kelvin Hale's Lowry Bay home currently being completed and invited them to a mock open home.