Parent firm urged to bail out contractors

By ANNE GIBSON

A creditor of Goodall ABL wants money used from the collapsed builder's parent company to help pay debts to 450 suppliers and contractors.

Bruce Tietjens, of Project Cranes in Auckland, says cross-ownerships and cross-shareholdings between Amalgamated Builders in the South Island and Auckland's Goodall ABL should be used to help those owed money.

He cited two sections of the Companies Act 1993 which would allow this.

Mr Tietjens has also raised ethical concerns surrounding the decision to place Goodall ABL into voluntary liquidation.

The company is 90 per cent owned by ABL, an established Otago and Southland builder, with the other 10 per cent held by Auckland's John Greenwood, its general manager and a director.

ABL has worked on many projects including the Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter, the new Southland Leisure Centre and five big Queenstown hotels.

Liquidator Rod Pardington, of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, said he could not comment.

"A lot of these issues are extremely complicated and we are dealing directly with the liquidation committee, not on this issue in particular but on a wide range of issues."

He added that significant negotiations were under way at the moment.

ABL has ruled out suffering any losses as a result of the collapse of Goodall ABL.

Queenstown millionaire and ABL owner Graeme Hill said at the time the company went under that there would be no flow-on effects in the south.

Mr Hill owns 65 per cent of ABL.

However, Mr Tietjens wants the liquidator to see matters differently.

"The liquidators or creditor can make application to the court to have the existing assets of ABL applied for the benefit of creditors in GABL," Mr Tietjens said in a letter to the New Zealand Building Subcontractors Federation.

He cited Section 271 and 272 of the Companies Act which deals with the pooling of assets of related companies.

With these provisions in mind, Mr Tietjens said creditors could band together.

He was responding to a questionnaire from the subcontractors federation which asked creditors of Goodall ABL whether they wanted a special meeting held "to discuss issues relating to the liquidation."

"It seems that it would be desirable because if an action was contemplated, for instance, under the provisions of Section 271 and 272 of the Companies Act, the costs to any one creditor would be extraordinarily high," Mr Tietjens said.

"But if those costs were shared on a joint application by creditors, such action might be worth consideration."

As for the ethical issues, he questioned the fall of Goodall ABL: "GABL was placed into liquidation by the passing of a shareholders' resolution, the principal shareholder being ABL and two of the directors of ABL were also directors of GABL."

He was referring to Mr Hill and Mr Pat Burke, the Queenstown manager for ABL and also listed as a director of Goodall ABL.

Mr Tietjens further questioned the appointment of ABL to finish the apartment development, Shed 24, at the end of Auckland's Princes Wharf.

Goodall ABL had been building the block up until March 1 when it went into liquidation with losses initially estimated at $12.3 million.

Project Cranes worked with Goodall ABL on the development at the end of the wharf. A $220 million redevelopment in the area includes building a Hilton Hotel opposite Shed 24.

Mr Tietjens said: "The liquidator of GABL has since novated [transferred] the contract in respect of Shed 24 to Amalgamated Builders Ltd and whilst the liquidator has his own reasons for novating the contract to ABL we believe the novation to ABL to say the very lease is unethical."

Mr Tietjens said Project Cranes did a variety of work for Goodall ABL, which included the design and fabrication of a special crane base for mounting a tower crane to the wharf, repairs to the tower crane owned by GABL, the erection of the tower crane and the hire of certain components.

He declined to name the exact sum the company owed Project Cranes.