Ostwald workers facing an unhappy Christmas
MORE than 200 Ostwald Bros employees are facing the sack, with administrators of the embattled civil construction company to recommend the company be liquidated at a creditors’ meeting next week.
The employees were kept on by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers after they took control of the company in late August in an effort to improve the company’s bottom line and complete several contracted projects.
At a meeting at Toowoomba’s Empire Theatre at 2.30pm on Thursday, November 30, it will be left up to the company’s hundreds of creditors to decide what would be in their best interests - to restructure the company through a deed of company arrangement, for the administration to end, or for the company to be liquidated.
The Chronicle has obtained a copy of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ creditors’ report, which will be discussed at next week’s meeting.
While administrators received 39 confidential expressions of interest from other companies interested in restructuring the
company, purchasing it, or parts of the company, only 23 were willing to sign confidentiality agreements to gain access to Ostwald
Bros’ financials.
In the end, no company was interested in purchasing the business as a whole, nor have there been any deeds of company arrangement received by the administrators.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has recommended that since no deed of company arrangement has been put forward, and the company is insolvent, Ostwald Bros should be wound up and placed into liquidation.
The company currently owes creditors $62.5 million, made up of $30 million owing to the ANZ bank as a secured creditor, $9 million in employee entitlements assuming all are made redundant, and $23.5 million to unsecured creditors.
Satellite venues in Brisbane and Grafton will be made available to those in other parts of the country who wish to join in Thursday’s creditors meeting.