Oxley unit could pay up to A$14.3m over troubled Australian units

A WHOLLY owned subsidiary of mainboard-listed developer Oxley Holdings 5UX will cough up as much as A$14.3 million to cover costs related to subsidiaries under voluntary administration in Australia, the board said in an update on Wednesday (Dec 8).

The sum includes settlements to:

• Unsecured creditors of Pindan Group and Pindan Contracting;
• A loan of up to A$1.2 million to the liquidators of entities related to Pindan Group; and
• A combined A$1.5 million to the related entities of Pindan Group that are under liquidation.

The subsidiary, Oxley Sparkle, will also bear costs relating to the administration or liquidation of the Pindan entities and the implementation of the proposed deeds of company arrangement that were approved at the reconvened second creditors' meetings held last Friday.

Oxley consolidated its ownership of Perth-based property firm Pindan Group in 2019, as settlement of a claim by Oxley after Pindan missed unspecified performance targets.

But Pindan Group and some wholly owned subsidiaries had to appoint voluntary administrators in May 2021, with Oxley citing "challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic that caused delays to construction activities, project completions and collection of project proceeds" at the time.

The completion of the deeds of company arrangement is subject to conditions such as the Pindan entities releasing all claims against Oxley Sparkle and Oxley Holdings.

Execution of the deeds is expected to take place within 15 days of the reconvened creditors' meetings, with payments to be within 14 days after that.

Oxley will give shareholders more updates "if there are any material developments in the administration of the Pindan companies", the board has said.

The counter closed flat at S$0.188 on Wednesday, before the latest news.