28 May 2012

Hastie Group takes down the ASIO building with it

| johnboy
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The Age brings word of the demise of another builder. This time it’s the Hastie Group which we heard on The Beast this morning has seen workers sent home from the ASIO building site on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin.

The company’s news page over the last few days has been less than re-assuring with claims of recapitalisation proposals followed by the discovery of accounting irregularities and then the resignation of two directors.

Finally today we have the appointment of administrators.

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screaming banshee said :

bywongqueen said :

These are all Govt contracts and obviously their procurement system is weak

It is the companies crawling over each other to reach the bottom of the price ladder in order to win the work that causes the problem.

Incidentally when I saw the Simmonds guys driving those crappy chinese rodeo knock-offs I knew they weren’t in it for the long run.

Screaming Banshee you are exactly right, but so is bywongqueen. The problem is that government is totally incapable of assessing what quality is or looks like so the only thing they can do is take the cheapest. This is the result. The warning here is if you win a Govt Tender well below your operating expenses and you don’t have a strategy to charge like a wounded bull for anything out of scope then you might as well appoint a receiver straight away.

harvyk1 said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

What good are redundancy packages when you can’t claim them because technically you aren’t unemployed, or redundant- just stood down till further notice? I feel so bad for these people who face a bleak future due to some executives lack of financial management skills.

Either pay them or make them redundant. I’m a little surprised that they are legally allowed to refuse to pay them for 28 days AND yet still call them employed.

I think if I was in that position I would want my marching orders, at least then I could get on with life post job… This limbo idea which they are currently in is truly the worst of both worlds.

Yup, I can’t believe that condition of employment has survived until now. You can be damned sure there is nothing like that in the CA I work under.

wildturkeycanoe said :

What good are redundancy packages when you can’t claim them because technically you aren’t unemployed, or redundant- just stood down till further notice? I feel so bad for these people who face a bleak future due to some executives lack of financial management skills.

Either pay them or make them redundant. I’m a little surprised that they are legally allowed to refuse to pay them for 28 days AND yet still call them employed.

I think if I was in that position I would want my marching orders, at least then I could get on with life post job… This limbo idea which they are currently in is truly the worst of both worlds.

Growling Ferret7:44 am 29 May 12

Terrible aquistitions and a failure to integrate said aquisitions to gain efficiencies, too much debt, rubbish management covering up loss making operations. Send the guilty half of Senior management to the big house as an example to the rest of the swine who are in for themselves, and screwing the little guys over.

wildturkeycanoe5:12 am 29 May 12

This will be a shock to Canberra, when you look at the roll-on effects. If the Heyday sparkys and the A/C guys can’t work for the next 28 days, then all the other trades who are waiting for them to finish cannot get their work done, then the ones waiting on them can’t complete on time. The whole project will get delayed, more people won’t get paid and more will lose their jobs. Someone needs to step in right now and take over the remnants of this business and keep it going. Even if it means another contractor comes in and employs these guys to get the job finished so they can at least keep their houses till this ASIO project is complete. What good are redundancy packages when you can’t claim them because technically you aren’t unemployed, or redundant- just stood down till further notice? I feel so bad for these people who face a bleak future due to some executives lack of financial management skills.

screaming banshee10:48 pm 28 May 12

bywongqueen said :

These are all Govt contracts and obviously their procurement system is weak

It is the companies crawling over each other to reach the bottom of the price ladder in order to win the work that causes the problem.

Incidentally when I saw the Simmonds guys driving those crappy chinese rodeo knock-offs I knew they weren’t in it for the long run.

Jamie Wheeler9:54 pm 28 May 12

A quick look at this financial history of this company and it looks like they were killed by high debt levels and a huge loss in 2011. Debt has been a significant issue since 2006 and poor cashflow has always been a problem, plus there was a brutal $230 million dollar loss on investment activities in 2008. The 2011 NPAT loss of $87Million is actually $102 Million cash loss on the cashflow statements. Blind Freddy could see they never really recovered from the GFC and were always a company with crappy financials.

p1 said :

Interesting that ASIO are able to do thorough background checks of poor Afghanis who arrive with no documentation, thorough enough to determine if there are a threat to the country or not, yet they can’t hire a building company which won’t go broke before completing their headquarters?

Spot on. My partner got a phone call this morning 8am to say he was out of a job. This is the second time this has happened in 6 months (RIP Simmonds Electrical). These are all Govt contracts and obviously their procurement system is weak if they are unable to check the bona fides of contractors and sub-contractors.
Who cares as long as people don’t arrive in boats?

screaming banshee4:56 pm 28 May 12

To be fair Bovis are the builders, Heyday are just the sparkies.

Interesting that ASIO are able to do thorough background checks of poor Afghanis who arrive with no documentation, thorough enough to determine if there are a threat to the country or not, yet they can’t hire a building company which won’t go broke before completing their headquarters?

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd3:35 pm 28 May 12

If it was not for the fact they employ a butt load of people, I would say good bye to swine company’s.
I can’t imagine what sort of mess it would be to be the ones taking over from where the work stopped.

p1 said :

Sammy said :

“Personal interests” indeed.

Personal interests = Villa in the South of Spain ?

Actually I would say “personal interests = Not getting caught up in a company collapse” that is a personal interest of mine, so it could easily be a personal interest of someone else’s.

On a more serious and less liabless note, I wonder if we’re going to hear the unions stating the gov’t needs to be a “good customer” and guarantee everyone pay packet esp as even the people who may have a job after the next 28 days are apparently still not going to be paid for the next month? Or is that an outcry reserved for “human rights signatory gov’t” only (like the ACT Gov’t).

Sammy said :

“Personal interests” indeed.

Personal interests = Villa in the South of Spain ?

Border Stainless Steel are part of Hastie. As are Heydey, who are prominent around Canberra.

News item from 3-weeks ago: “Hastie Group Limited (ASX:HST) announces the appointment of Ashley Killick as interim Chief Financial Officer, replacing Mark Wratten who has resigned this position to pursue personal interests.”

“Personal interests” indeed.

Two decent size developers in a couple of weeks. Maybe we’ll end up like SE Qld…

If they work anything like they drive, they’re all doomed … I learned ages ago that cars marked “Hastie” were to be given a wide berth on the roads.

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