Tagged: corporate collapse
17 articles we've published with this tag.
Slater & Gordon and the Quindell deal that nearly ended the firmHow Slater & Gordon's 2015 UK acquisition of Quindell's professional services arm turned a listed law firm into a case study in corporate collapse.By Ray Petrakis
MFS/Octaviar: the Gold Coast collapse that unravelled a $2.5bn empireHow MFS Limited grew into a sprawling Gold Coast financial empire, then collapsed in 2008 into one of Australia's longest-running insolvency sagas.By Ray Petrakis
Adelaide Steamship: how John Spalvins built a $12 billion house of mirrorsAdsteam's cross-shareholding empire made John Spalvins Australia's most admired executive. Then the early-1990s recession found the gearing underneath.By Ray Petrakis
Centro Properties: the $18bn debt maturity that nearly ended it, and the court case on director dutyCentro Properties survived the GFC only just, undone by short-term debt and a balance-sheet reclassification error that produced one of Australia's landmark director-duty rulings.By Ray Petrakis
Sons of Gwalia: the hedging collapse that rewrote shareholder rightsSons of Gwalia's 2004 collapse over gold hedging losses produced a High Court ruling that let aggrieved shareholders queue as creditors, alarming boards for a decade.By Ray Petrakis
Firepower: the fuel pill scheme that burned through millions before it collapsedFirepower promised a pill that would slash fuel bills and sponsored Australian sport. It collapsed owing hundreds of millions, and ASIC pursued its director for years.By Colin Ashworth
Bell Group: the collapse that spawned the longest litigation in Australian corporate historyAlan Bond's Bell Group fell in 1991. What followed was a banks-versus-liquidators legal war that consumed three decades, two jurisdictions and hundreds of millions in costs.By Ray Petrakis
One.Tel: how Australia's fourth-largest telco burned through a billion dollarsBacked by Packer and Murdoch interests, One.Tel collapsed in May 2001 with debts that ultimately ran to over a billion dollars. This is the story of how it happened.By Ray Petrakis
ABC Learning: how Eddy Groves built and broke the world's largest listed childcare companyEddy Groves turned a single Brisbane childcare centre into a listed empire spanning three continents. When the debt came due in 2008, 100,000 children faced losing their places overnight.By Ray Petrakis
Timbercorp and Great Southern: how the tax-driven agribusiness dream ended in ruinTwo ASX-listed giants sold Australians on tax-effective tree plantations and olive groves. When they collapsed in 2009, thousands of investors were left holding loans they could never repay.By Ray Petrakis
Christopher Skase and Qintex: the empire that dissolved in the sunHow Christopher Skase built a media and resorts empire on borrowed confidence, then spent his final years fighting extradition from a Majorcan villa.By Margaret Fenwick
Ansett Australia: the full rise and fall of a national airlineFrom Reg Ansett's single-plane service in 1936 to the administration that stranded 16,000 workers in 2001 — the definitive story of how Australia's second airline was built, sold and ultimately broken.By Ray Petrakis
HIH Insurance: how Australia's largest corporate failure happenedThe 2001 collapse of HIH Insurance wiped out $5.3 billion and left thousands without cover. The Royal Commission's findings on governance failure remain a warning that hasn't fully been heeded.By Ray Petrakis
Opes Prime: how a stock-lending firm turned retail investors into unsecured creditors overnightIn March 2008, Opes Prime collapsed owing nearly $1 billion. The retail investors who thought they owned shares discovered they had signed them away. This is how it happened.By Ray Petrakis
Alan Bond: the sign-writer who conquered the world, then lost everythingFrom Perth sign-writing to the America's Cup, Channel Nine and a Van Gogh — and then to prison. The full arc of Alan Bond's extraordinary rise and collapse.By Margaret Fenwick
Allco Finance Group: the leasing empire that GFC finished offAllco Finance Group collapsed in 2008 with debts in the billions. The related-party questions that followed were almost as complex as the structure itself.By Ray Petrakis
Babcock & Brown: the gearing machine that couldn't survive the GFCBabcock & Brown was Australia's second-largest investment bank at its peak. Then the debt that built the empire became the thing that destroyed it.By Ray Petrakis