Pre-fab company in liquidation
ABT Construction once cited as part of solution to housing crisis
A company once touted as part of the solution to Auckland’s housing crisis with its fast-turnaround pre-fabricated dwellings has been put into liquidation over unpaid bills amid reports of frictions within its management team.
Liquidators Peri Finnigan and Boris van Delden say they believe ABT Construction ceased trading in the middle of last year.
Transport f irm Multi- Trans applied to put the company into liquidation.
Multi-Trans director Dave Brown said his firm hauled ABT modules from the Auckland Show Grounds to an Albany development in 2015 but was not paid in full.
Brown said ABT “paid a little bit of money, locked the office and didn’t answer the phone.”
In 2015, ABT had four developments on the go in Auckland at Narrow Neck, Unsworth Heights and Grafton and even a contract for toilets on Great Barrier Island.
Its model for building modular homes offsite at a factory, keeping costs low, was praised by Housing Minister Nick Smith at the time.
“The sort of technology being developed by ABT is part of the solution to New Zealand’s housing challenges in that it involves scale and prefab construction as well as apartment-style design,” Smith told the Herald in 2015.
Finnigan and van Delden said in their first report that based on information from various parties, “it appears there were conflicts within the company’s management team that resulted in the company ceasing to trade around mid-2016”.
The value of secured and unsecured creditor cl aims is unknown.
Secured creditors with assets pledged are Carter Holt Harvey, Harvey Norman, Ricoh, Steel & Tube Holdings, Tile Imports NZ and Bunnings.
Of the company’s 200 shares, Auckland-based Qijie Xu is dominant with 124 shares, while Murray Painting held 66 shares.
Creditor claims are due in with the liquidators by January 27.
William Carter, who was previously ABT’s sales and systems manager, said the building operation was “a very good system, a viable system”.
The projects underway had all been completed and Carter said he has worked with another company, Hyperstructure, to assist ABT customers.