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Home / New Zealand

Who wants $9.2m? Creditors of Armstrong Downes Commercial named

Anne Gibson
By Anne Gibson
Property Editor·NZ Herald·
9 May, 2022 05:00 PM4 mins to read

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Frank Kitts Park on Wellington's waterfront where the builder was working. Photo / supplied
Frank Kitts Park on Wellington's waterfront where the builder was working. Photo / supplied

Frank Kitts Park on Wellington's waterfront where the builder was working. Photo / supplied

It's a list of who's who in Wellington business, a sombre reminder of what being an unsecured creditor means and the potential impact of the law of limited liability.

Grant Thornton's initial liquidators' report on one of the capital's largest commercial builders makes for tough reading.

The first report on Armstrong Downes Commercial 2012 from David Ruscoe and Russell Moore listed 320 creditors claiming more than $9 million from the business incorporated a decade ago.

Those creditors won't even get to band together in person because the liquidators aren't proposing a physical meeting of the company whose directors are Tony Doile and Simon Taylor.

Nor are they saying what, if any, money could be repaid, except we do know liabilities outstrip assets by quite a margin: the company had $17.6m liabilities but just $8.9m in assets.

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Experts estimated the builder had about $80m of work on when its shareholders called in the liquidators earlier this month because they could not carry on financially.

Those 320 creditors are claiming $9.2m, Grant Thornton's report said, although it did not assign how much each of those parties is claiming from Armstrong Downes.

Think of a builder's clients and pretty much anything that's on their sites and you'll come up with many of the names of the creditors - everything from the portable units workers are based in to the scaffolding they climb on and the subcontractors needed from many trades to put a building together.

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City hall wants money: the Wellington City Council appears as an unsecured creditor. It had engaged the builder to do up its waterfront Frank Kitts Park.

The builder is also potentially in hock to a number of national building supply chains; Bunnings, Carters and PlaceMakers Wellington Hub are listed as unsecured creditors.

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Two media businesses want money: Sky Network Television and Stuff via the Dominion Post. Both are unsecured creditors.

Communications/network businesses are also creditors: Spark New Zealand Trading and Cello Communications, also unsecured.

Lift manufacturer and supplier Schindler NZ is listed, as well as heating, fire, electrical, tiling, security and traffic management and roading businesses.

Container business Royal Wolf Trading NZ appears as well as Portable Buildings New Zealand, along with New Zealand-owned Resene Paints, which has for many years so generously sponsored the NZ Institute of Architects awards.

Even the Registered Master Builders Association is claiming money and is sadly another unsecured creditor.

Concrete, asbestos and granite and marble specialists appear near stairways, steel, roofing and playground businesses.

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Hirepool appears on the list, along with Stellar Recruitment and Site Safe New Zealand.

Other builders are unsecured creditors, like JNS Construction Services, JBG Construction, JB Quality Construction, Eagle Eye Construction, Eden Brothers Construction, ICL Construction (2016), McClure Construction, Three Daughters Construction and VDM Construction and Retaining.

Even the international businesses Wilson Parking and Waste Management are creditors, both unsecured.

Secured creditors want $2.8m and they include Westpac.

Many Fletcher Building businesses are owed money but shareholders can take a little comfort in that at least those businesses have security over the builder. They are The Fletcher Construction Company, Fletcher Building Products, Fletcher Concrete and Infrastructure trading as Firth Industries, Fletcher Distribution and that same business trading as PlaceMakers Seaview, as well as Fletcher Steel.

Carters Building Supplies, Higgins Concrete, Fujifilm Business Innovation, Hercules Cranes and Rigging, Hilti New Zealand, Hirepool, Karcher, Knobs 'N Knockers, Metal Art, Nees Hardware trading as Mitre10 Mega Petone, Outside in, Safesmart Access, Sika, Steel Building Products are among other secured creditors.

Inland Revenue could also be a creditor. The accounts showed that $979,000 income tax is owed.

Ruscoe and Moore explained what went wrong.

"Two of the company's largest construction projects that it was responsible for running were suffering substantial losses as a result of the contract prices being fixed. Since the fixing of the prices, there have been significant issues and market factors that have adversely affected the company, including substantial cost increases outside of those budgeted for, procurement and supply chain challenges, and labour shortages," they said.

The contracts were also entered into before the pandemic, which caused significant disruptions and delays from site access bans.

After an unsuccessful attempt to restructure contracts, the shareholders decided the appointment of liquidators was best for customers, subcontractors, creditors and other stakeholders to minimise further losses, they wrote.

The liquidators said it wasn't practical to say when the process would finish.

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