Administrators ‘running out of hope’ to finish Bathla projects

The administrator for a collapsed major Sydney developer has warned its financial situation is “very dire” and there may not be enough funding to finish its construction projects.

Teneo’s Stephen Longley, the administrator for Bathla Group, told the Today program they are running out of hope for a holistic solution to finish the 45 projects under construction.

“We’ve had intensive discussions with lenders, but I don’t think we’re going to get enough funding in place to be able to finish those 45 projects. We need to put together a minimum viable structure to deliver the projects,” he said.

Bathla Group entered voluntary administration last Tuesday, owing debts of more than $3.3 billion . Teneo has until Thursday to find $20 million to repay eight weeks of staff wages and fund near-complete projects.

“What we need the funding for is the head office cost. There’s 350 staff at head office, most of which are mission-critical to deliver those projects, and all the other costs associated with supporting the project,” Longley said on Today.

Longley said Teneo “put out a broadcast” late on Monday to construction lenders and said they would need commitments within 24 hours.

“We’ll start planning at the end of the day for the wind down of the business, and we’ll be meeting with staff,” he said.

“Payroll is due on Thursday. As administrators, we’re personally liable for paying that payroll, even if a company doesn’t have any money, which it doesn’t.

“So, we need to work out how do we pay those employees, but we’ll be paying them and then saying there’s no more money, and they have to go home and there’ll be wholesale redundancies.”