Walter Construction Group

Last updated

Walter Construction Group Limited
FormerlyConcrete Constructions
Company type Privately held company
Industry Construction
Founded21 April 1920
FounderAllen Lewis
Defunct2005
Fate Bankruptcy
Headquarters
Sydney
,
Australia
Area served
Australia
Revenue$500 million (2005)
Number of employees
1,000 (2005)
Parent Walter Bau  [ de ]
Website www.walter.net.au
The company's logo prior to its rebranding as Walter Construction Group Concrete Constructions Logo.png
The company's logo prior to its rebranding as Walter Construction Group

Walter Construction Group Limited, known for most of its life as Concrete Constructions Pty Ltd, [1] [2] was one of Australia's oldest and fifth largest construction company [3] prior to its 2005 collapse. The company was founded on 21 April 1920 by Allen Lewis. [4] [5] It remained independent until 1999, when the company was bought by the German Walter Bau  [ de ] and rebranded as Walter Construction Group. [6]

Contents

Collapse

Before its collapse, Walter Construction had two divisions: "Construction and Civil", and "Mining". [7] While the mining division was profitable and expanding, the construction division had been losing money since 2000. By the company's collapse, 18 of its 21 contracts were cashflow negative. [3] During this period the company heavily relied on its parent company for financial support, [8] however Walter Bau was also experiencing financial difficulties and both companies were placed into liquidation on 3 February 2005. [9] [10] KordaMentha was appointed the administrator, [11] and proceeded to liquidate the remaining assets of the company by 2018. [12] [13] [14] During their investigation, it was also revealed that Walter Construction had traded while insolvent. [15] [16]

Prior to the collapse, John Holland had a bid to acquire Walter Construction, however the deal fell through in 2002. [17]

Notable projects

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One.Tel</span> Australian telecom corporation

One.Tel was a group of Australian-based telecommunications companies, principally the publicly-listed One.Tel Limited, established in 1995 soon after deregulation of the Australian telecommunications industry, most of which are currently under external administration by court appointed liquidators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIH Insurance</span> Former Australian insurance company

HIH Insurance was Australia's second-largest insurance company before it was placed into provisional liquidation on 15 March 2001. The demise of HIH is considered to be the largest corporate collapse in Australia's history, with liquidators estimating that HIH's losses totalled up to AUD $5.3 billion. Investigations into the cause of the collapse have led to conviction and imprisonment of a handful of members of HIH management on various charges relating to fraud. A Royal Commission was formed in the wake of the collapse. It also led to the 2002 Review of the Law of Negligence led by David Ipp and subsequent Tort reform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ANZ (bank)</span> Australian multinational bank

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) is a multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is Australia's second-largest bank by assets and fourth-largest bank by market capitalisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross City Tunnel</span> Motorway tunnel in Sydney, Australia

The Cross City Tunnel is a 2.2-kilometre long (1.4 mi) twin-road tunnel tollway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The tunnel links Darling Harbour on the western fringe of the central business district to Rushcutters Bay in the Eastern Suburbs. Each of the twin tunnels has a different alignment, with the westbound tunnel running underneath William and Park Streets and the eastbound tunnel running underneath Bathurst Street.

Andrew McManus is an Australian live music promoter, and founder of several music promotion companies.

KordaMentha is an Asia-Pacific advisory and investment firm that provides specialist consulting, forensic, real estate, restructuring and investment services. The business was formed in April 2002 by Mark Korda and Mark Mentha. KordaMentha has offices in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Townsville in Australia while operating international offices in Auckland, Singapore and Jakarta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westpoint Corporation</span>

Westpoint Corporation was the head company of the Western Australian based Westpoint Group of Companies which was primarily engaged in property development. It was placed into receivership in February 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connector Motorways</span> Australian toll road operator

Connector Motorways was an Australian toll road operator which operated the Lane Cove Tunnel and the Falcon Street Gateway in northern Sydney. Both projects opened to the public in March 2007. Connector was owned by CK Infrastructure Holdings (19.6%), AMP (15%) and Leighton (11%)

CIMIC Group Limited is an engineering-led construction, mining, services and public private partnerships leader working across the lifecycle of assets, infrastructure and resources projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Holland Group</span> Infrastructure company based in Melbourne, Australia

The John Holland Group is an infrastructure, building, rail and transport business operating in Australia and New Zealand. Headquartered in Melbourne, it is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction.

Firepower International was a fraudulent company that advertised as a Hong Kong-based company owned and operated by Global Fuel Technologies Ltd, specializing in technology purporting to reduce the fuel consumption and environmental impact of petrol-operated vehicles. There were other offices in Sydney, China, Rhodes, Athens and Papua New Guinea, according to the now-defunct official company website. However, "in reality it was a handful of people in an industrial estate in Perth", who were conducting a complex of fraudulent operations. The original entity—Firepower Operations Pty Ltd—was a A$1 company, first registered in December 2004, owned by Firepower Holdings Group Ltd, a company with an address in the British Virgin Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBY Limited</span> Former Australian stockbroker company

BBY Ltd was an Australian stock broking, corporate advisory and asset management firm. Prior to its voluntary administration on 18 May 2015, it claimed to be the largest independent stockbroker in Australia and New Zealand by market share. The group provided financial and advisory services to emerging companies and their investors including corporate finance, research, sales & trading, asset management and broker dealer services.

Thiess Pty Ltd is an international mining services company based in Brisbane, Australia. Established in the 1930s as Horn & Thiess, the company later became Thiess Bros and Thiess Contractors before being bought by Leighton Holdings in 1983 to become part of the CIMIC Group. Thiess' headquarters are located in the Thiess Centre in South Bank in the Brisbane CBD near the TAFE Brisbane City campus.

Strategic Airlines Pty Ltd, trading as Air Australia Airways, was an Australian airline flying domestic and international scheduled passenger flights. Strategic Aviation, a sister company, flew air charter flights using the Air Australia fleet or other leased aircraft. Both companies had their head office in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane.

A phoenix company is a successful commercial entity which has emerged from the collapse of another through insolvency. Unlike "bottom of the harbour" and similar schemes that strictly focus on asset stripping, the new company is set up as a legal successor, to trade in the same or similar trading activities as the former, and is able to present the appearance of "business as usual" to its customers. It has been described as "one that arises amidst or from the disarray and demise of its predecessor." A phoenix company may be classified either "innocent"/"bona fide" or abusive.

RiverCity Motorway Group was a Queensland company that operated Brisbane’s first private tollway — the Clem Jones Tunnel (CLEM7). They also established FLOW Tolling, a tolling service provider. Rivercity Motorways Group won the rights to be the maintainer of the Clem Jones Tunnel. When the tunnel opened in 2010 it was to have a concession period of 45 years before it was handed back to the City of Brisbane. The value of the tunnel was written down by $1.56 billion to $258 million in 2010.

Timbercorp, a now-defunct managed investment scheme within Australia from 1999 to 2008, was established to manage superannuation and investments in agriculture. The consortium of companies were placed into public administration on 23 April 2009 and is currently being wound up by administrators.

Bluewaters Power Station was the first privately owned, coal-fired power station in Western Australia. It was built by Griffin Energy in 2009 and is the newest coal-fired power station in Australia. The site is 4.5 km (2.8 mi) northeast of Collie.

Shopa Docket was an Australian coupon company, founded in 1986, based in Brisbane, Australia. It was a provider of coupons that appear on the back of receipts in supermarkets and variety stores and outlets including Woolworths Supermarkets, Target Australia, Kmart, Big W, Chemist Warehouse, Harris Farm and IGA. Shopa Docket helped companies to advertise, promote and market their brand through their coupons. Shopa Docket was part of the Shopa Group. It provided online offers, deals, vouchers, and coupon codes from several local and national brands. It was the sole provider of printed docket advertising in Australia, reportedly by Brisbane Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kell & Rigby</span> Defunct Australian construction company

Kell & Rigby was an Australian construction company.

References

  1. ↑ "TODAY'S LAW LIST". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). 22 May 1995. p. 6. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  2. ↑ "Walter buy: Leighton no Wally". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 December 2002. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Construction" (PDF). KordaMentha. 1 August 2012.
  4. ↑ ASIC Connect; ACN 000 008 935
  5. ↑ Perkins, John, "Allen Charles Lewis (1891–1970)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 11 May 2020
  6. ↑ "CONCRETE CHANGES.(FEATURES)". The Australian (National, Australia): 035. 9 April 1999.
  7. ↑ "Walter Construction in administration". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 February 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  8. ↑ "Walter directors 'knew parent was bankrupt'". The Age. 22 March 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Frericks, Sebastian (28 December 2018). Downfall of Large German Listed Companies: A Two-Dimensional Analysis of Failure Factors. Springer. p. 49. ISBN   978-3-658-24999-1.
  10. ↑ "Workers lose millions as builder collapses". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 February 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  11. ↑ ASIC (13 March 2018). "Walter Construction Group Limited (In Liquidation) 008 390 074 | Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation". ASIC. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "Last asset sale for Walter Group". Australian Financial Review. 16 April 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  13. ↑ ASIC Connect; ACN 008390074
  14. ↑ "Workers lose millions as builder collapses". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 February 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  15. ↑ "Walter directors 'knew' it was insolvent". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 March 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  16. ↑ "AM - Walter Construction Group collapses". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  17. ↑ "Walter buy: Leighton no Wally". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 December 2002. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  18. ↑ "BUILDING ESTIMATED TO COST £2 MILLION". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). 18 January 1950. p. 1. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  19. ↑ "Tower Canberra's most prominent landmark". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). 28 December 1979. p. 7. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  20. ↑ "Telstra Tower". www.telstratower.com.au. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  21. ↑ "25 YEARS ON: CALLING ON PARLIAMENT HOUSE CONSTRUCTORS | Indesignlive". Indesignlive | Daily Connection to Australian Architecture and Design. 6 May 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  22. ↑ "Who was chosen to build Australia's largest Building?" (PDF). The House Magazine. Vol. 7, no. 12. 9 May 1988. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  23. ↑ Grosvenor Place Sydney Architecture
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.