The company worked on this Napier project. Photo / Supplied
The company worked on this Napier project. Photo / Supplied
The ASB Bank is owed $5.4 million by a civil earthworks and land development contracting business, put into liquidation with $8.6m debts.
Liquidators Christopher McCullagh and Steve Lawrence of PKF Corporate Recovery & Insolvency listed the major trading bank as the biggest single creditor.
The Auckland-based company JacksCo Civil isestimated to owe $3.2m to unsecured creditors as well as the $5.4m to the bank, bringing cumulative debts to $8.6m.
Its director Simon Jacks called the liquidators, who are now tracing where money has gone and who’s owed what.
The contractor was also granted a total of $947,000 in Covid wage subsidies to pay its staff, who worked in Auckland and elsewhere. When the pandemic struck, the Government offered relief to keep the business afloat. It got $541,279 for 77 employees as an initial wage subsidy, then $94,899 as a resurgence payment to keep 81 staff, then a third wage subsidy of $312,000 in August 2021 for 67 staff, according to the employer website.
It traded as a civil construction business, largely operating in the Auckland region. A social media profile showed it worked in Napier, Wiri and Long Bay.
JacksCo did civil contracting work.
It started in January 2017, using plant and equipment owned by a related company, JacksCo.
Director Simon Anthony Jacks told the liquidators the company suffered delays in completing contracts due to the pandemic, staffing issues and more recently, weather conditions.
“This led to significant cost increases on projects, resulting in significant losses being incurred on some projects,” the liquidators said in their first report.
As a result, the company’s cash reserves were depleted. Given the slowdown in the construction industry, cash reserves seemed unlikely to recover. So Jacks decided to put JacksCo Civil and JacksCo into liquidation, to conduct their orderly wind-up.
JacksCo Civil is estimated to owe $3.2m to unsecured creditors. That is made up of $376,000 owed to employees, a $1.7m loan extended to the related JacksCo, and $157,000 withheld as retentions still payable to subcontractors.
But the company has substantial assets as well, the statement of affairs showed.
Trade receivables of $2.3m and retentions of $1.06m are listed under assets available to preferential creditors.
Inland Revenue is listed as being owed $350,000 for employer taxes.
The ASB has a secured ranking general security agreement over the business that is put at a $5.4m debt. But how much the bank will get back out of the liquidation is unknown. The liquidators list as “unknown” the surplus or deficit in relation to the bank.
A long list of those claiming money has been released with the first report.
Creditors appeared as ASB Bank, EnviroWaste, Stihl Shop Hastings, Fletcher Steel, GBC Winstone, Vodafone, Prestige Loos, Placemakers Auckland Central, Placemakers Hawkes Bay, North and South Recruitment, Bunnings, Central Landscape Supplies Silverdale, Humes Pipeline Systems, Hynds Pipe Systems, Inland Revenue, Brilliance Steel, Mobile Oil NZ, Russell Legal and Stanley Phillips Contracting.
HydroVa, Hirepool, ICB Retaining and Construction of North Harbour, Holcim, Just Water, Key Immigration Consultants, Lite Civil, NZ Safety Blockworks and Mowbray Automative were some of the other creditors.
