Failed Gore building firm owes $4m

The Employment Relations Authority has ruled an apprentice was unjustifiably dismissed and...
The Employment Relations Authority has ruled an apprentice was unjustifiably dismissed and ordered the building company to pay him almost $10,000. Photo: NZ Herald/file
Breaches of the Companies Act 1993 have been identified during an investigation by liquidators into the trading history of a failed Southland construction business and its directors’ actions.

In his six-monthly report, Brenton Hunt, of Insolvency Matters, said it needed to be worked out if it was "economic to pursue" the directors of Prospec Structures, who are listed as Nathan Mark Stewart and Ingrid Rose Stewart, of Gore.

Incorporated in January 2020, the Gore-based construction business, which specialised in temperature-controlled buildings for the agriculture, horticulture and viticulture sectors, was placed in liquidation in November last year by special resolution of the company’s shareholders.

The total estimated shortfall to all creditors was just over $4 million.

Total preferential creditors totalled $103,856 — which included staff wages and holiday pay of $48,856 and Inland Revenue GST and PAYE of $55,000 — secured creditors of $1.58m, and unsecured creditors — comprising 26 claims — of nearly $2.4m.

The liquidation would be complete in the next 12 months.