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Administrators tasked with saving Sydney developer Bathla have warned the company has until Thursday to secure millions in funding to pay staff and suppliers, or it will be liquidated, becoming one of the largest real estate collapses in Australian history.
Teneo, the external administrators appointed to run the beleaguered western Sydney developer last week, told employees at a meeting at the company’s Girraween headquarters on Monday that it was urgently trying to find money before the next pay cycle on Thursday – but had so far failed to do so.
“We do not have enough money to pay their wages on Thursday,” administrator Stephen Longley told reporters outside Bathla’s offices following the meeting. “The staff here are amazing. They want to finish the projects, and so they are taking a leap of faith with us this week.”
But some staff have not been paid for more than eight weeks, representing costs of more than $2.5 million. The “personal stress” is being felt by some migrant staff who hold Australian visas which would require them to leave the country if they cannot find other work if Bathla was to make them redundant, Longley said.
“There’s no cash here. We don’t have any cash to pay wages. We don’t have any cash to pay suppliers. So unless that situation can be resolved, we won’t have the option other than to close the business.”
The NSW government on the weekend declined to step in to prevent the collapse of the company, with Premier Chris Minns saying on Saturday he hoped “another financier … [or] some other developer” would lead the rescue efforts. No other developer has put their hand up to help yet, but Longley said the response of the approximately 43 private capital lenders to the crisis had been good.
“We’ve got so many different lenders here, and we’ve all got to contribute,” Longley said. “We can’t just fix one site. We’ve got to fix the whole of the head office so that all of the sites can get up and running.”
Administrators are seeking $20 million to get through the next month and to backpay wages and super obligations.
“We think we need funding for a month to work out the next six months,” Longley added.
Teneo has borrowed $1 million from its own head office to keep the lights on, he said.
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Anthony Segaert is the Parramatta bureau chief at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously an urban affairs reporter.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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