Billboard ramps up the Ebert pressure

A billboard has gone up at the bottom of a major Wellington motorway exit, urging the directors of a collapsed construction company to pay back money to their subcontractors.

The sign in Ngauranga Gorge addresses Kelvin Hale and Dennis Ebert of Ebert Construction, which recently went into receivership owing an estimated $40 million.

The billboard was funded by Wellington developer Richard Burrell, who said his nephew was owed about $700,000 by Ebert in Auckland.

Efforts to contact Hale and his lawyer were unsuccessful.

Dennis Ebert was not a director of Ebert when it collapsed but he was a founder of the company and is still heavily involved in property investment with Hale, Ebert’s managing director and a director.

Both are directors of Habia, one of several companies they control.

The billboard calls on Hale and Ebert to release some of the equity Habia holds in a 24-unit Wellington apartment block which has a rateable value (RV) of $13.78m. Some of the units have changed hands, but it is understood there may still be some unsold.

‘‘Cheapest build price for apartments in the last 10 years?’’ the billboard says, followed by: ‘‘Kelvin and Dennis, give the $5m of equity you have in this block back to your sub-contractors!’’

Although Hale and Ebert do not own Habia, its shareholders are relatives and lawyers, a pattern repeated with other companies they direct.

Habia is half-owned by Beatrice Ebert of Auckland 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.

Forsyth and Bronwyn Hale are also on the title of Hale’s expensive newly built mansion in Lower Hutt’s Lowry Bay.

Another company Kelvin Hale and Dennis Ebert control, Nidus Properties, has a string of properties around the country with a collective RV of $26.6m.

Assets include an 18-unit apartment block in downtown Wellington and an industrial property in Seaview.

Again, Nidus is largely owned by Bronwyn Hale and Forsyth (43.75 per cent), Beatrice Ebert and Michael Finnigan (43.75 per cent). Kelvin Hale and Dennis Ebert were shareholders until 2004.

Other companies owned or part-owned by Bronwyn Hale and Beatrice Ebert and their lawyers include Long Holdings, the parent company of Long Panel, an insulated panels manufacturer in Palmerston North. They own 48.28 per cent and Philip Julian is the sole director.

Bronwyn Hale and Beatrice Ebert and their lawyers also own Moemotu Investments, which owns half of Moemotu Station in Whitianga. Kelvin Hale is a director.

Kelvin Hale and Dennis Ebert are also linked to a number of other assets:

❚ They are directors of Cubile Properties which owns an industrial property in Rolleston (RV $6.85m). Bronwyn Hale, Forsyth, Beatrice Ebert and Michael Finnigan are the shareholders.

❚ Kelvin Hale is a director and part-owner of a bach and land in Opotiki, Bay of Plenty (RV $427,000). Nidus owns a half stake.

❚ Hale is also a director and owns a quarter stake with Philip and Helen Julian in IPD Properties, which owns an industrial property in Palmerston North (RV $1.73m). Nidus owns a half stake.

❚ He is a director with Philip Julian in Long Properties which owns two industrial properties in Rolleston ($4.71m). Shareholders are Nidus (66.67 per cent) and a company owned by Hale and the Julians.

❚ Records show that Kelvin Hale sold his Khandallah home in July, three weeks before Ebert’s receivership, for $2,124,000.