Ebert liquidators have directors in their sights
Collapsed builder Ebert Construction, which owes its subcontractors at least $33.84 million, has been placed into liquidation.
Following a shareholder vote, Grant Thornton partners David Ruscoe and Tim Downes were appointed as liquidators on Wednesday night.
Ruscoe said they planned to ‘‘investigate their [the directors’] affairs and see if there are any other avenues for recovery’’.
Ruscoe said Ebert shareholders decided putting it into liquidation was ‘‘the right thing to do’’ but the company’s receivership would continue.
Its shareholders include Bronwyn Hale and Beatrice Ebert.
The first liquidator’s report will be released in four days. Ruscoe said the report would be ‘‘very similar to the receivership report’’, which found the company was involved in 15 projects at the time of its collapse and owed creditors more than $45m.
Ebert’s receiver, John Fisk, said a liquidator could probe the personal finances of directors and ‘‘could look at claims against the director’’ from creditors.
Ebert’s secured creditors include Bank of New Zealand, which is owed $6.08m, and Ebert’s managing director and director Kelvin Hale, who, along with another shareholder, loaned the company $3.5m in July.
Ebert employed about 100 staff and had a forecast turnover for the year to 31 March, 2019 of $171m, according to the receiver’s report.
Ebert’s 100-plus employees were owed $640,000 in preferred but unsecured debt, and another
$1.283m in non-preferred debt. Subcontractors were owed
$33.84m, including $9.3m in retentions – money that is held back to guarantee any below-par work is remedied.
Ruscoe said the liquidators would meet the receivers at PwC today and the company directors shortly afterwards. He planned to meet with subcontractors but ‘‘not immediately’’.