Collapsed company’s debt climbs to $124 million

The company called REMI Capital, was placed in voluntary administration on May 25, with Chris Baskerville of insolvency firm Jirsch Sutherland named administrator.

At the first meeting of creditors held on Monday, the liquidator’s report showed that of the $124 million in outstanding debt, $1 million was owed to employees and $62 million to unsecured creditors.

Meanwhile, 433 affected investors have been identified across Australia.

This included 259 investors in Victoria, 110 in Queensland, 43 in New South Wales, eight in Western Australia and Tasmania and a handful in South Australia and the Northern Territories.

The administrator’s preliminary investigation also revealed that $6 million was owed to the Australian Taxation Office and other statutory bodies and that there was $30 million in debt to entity loans. linked.

The independent investment company had promised access to ‘responsibly and ethically managed investments’ and included a range of boutique property developments, its website showed before it closed following its collapse.

One of the 433 investors affected was a Melbourne father-of-two who was “shocked” and “heartbroken” after REMI Capital collapsed. owes his family $300,000.

“It’s heartbreaking. I come home at the end of the day and my wife and I are in tears separately on our way home from work,” *Richard told news.com.au at the time.

“It’s very moving, it impacts my relationship with my wife.

“It’s torture. We don’t know how long this will last.”

A bombshell email leaked to news.com.au revealed the extent of the company’s problems long before it went into liquidation.

Peter Kral, chief financial officer of REMI Capital, sent an email on March 25 indicating that the company had “experienced several delays in repayments” in recent months.

He said the company “provides you with a plan to pay monies owed” and blamed a number of factors for the delays, including “the confiscation of loan/monetary repayments by parties external to Remi totaling approximately $4 million. dollars (Aus) which was scheduled to be repaid to Rémi at the end of last year/beginning of this year”.

The email also revealed that the sale of properties was “time consuming and subject to significant delays” and that there was “failure of promised funding to effect settlement and unlock existing equity in the projects. In progress”.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Kral.

Following the creditors’ meeting, Richard said it was “disappointing” to hear about the level of debt and he was still unsure if any of his $300,000 would be repaid. His wife was very upset, he added.

“It’s a lifelong effect with us, it breaks our relationship, I don’t know how the relationship is going to go with my wife,” he said.

“We went from financial freedom to financial prison. My wife is mad because I couldn’t see it was a (problem) but it was backed by real estate and it all looked legit, but now it’s badly collapsed…and there’s no protection for investors.

After the collapse, Mark Prestige, who had been managing partner at REMI Capital for almost four years, acknowledged there had been a “lack of communication” from the firm in recent weeks.

“Remi had been advised by outside legal counsel not to communicate for the past few weeks until the modeling was complete, which made this difficult decision possible,” he wrote in an email addressed to investors, shareholders and former staff members.

“REMI apologizes for any lack of communication over the past few weeks. We ask that you rely on all reports to creditors and not rely on any speculation you may hear.

The administrator’s report showed that Mr Prestige had $45 million in funds ‘written’ while he was managing partner and Peter Terrill, who was previously a director of the firm, including when it was known as the name of C2 Capital, had 83 million dollars.

When he was appointed as a director, Mr Baskerville said one of the solutions was a deed of corporate arrangement (DoCA) proposed by the directors.

A DoCA tries to maximize the chances of the business continuing to operate and aims to provide a better return to creditors than an immediate liquidation of the business, according to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

REMI owned two properties and had an option to purchase another, the administrators found.

Mr Baskerville said options currently being explored include carrying out a marketing campaign to sell the properties locally or seeking a refinancing scheme.

*Name has been changed

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