Plans for a $35 million property float headed by former Fremantle Dockers captain Peter Bell have come to a sudden halt after the company SAS Global Baldivis Ltd was placed in administration today.
Plans for a $35 million property float headed by former Fremantle Dockers captain Peter Bell have come to a sudden halt after the company SAS Global Baldivis Ltd was placed in administration today.
Mr Bell was part of a new management team, which included former Investec executive Ian Hamer and former Dockers team mate Matthew Carr, that was planning to recapitalise SAS Global Baldivis and list it on the ASX.
SAS Global Baldivis is one of at least five companies in the SAS Global investment group that was seeking to raise fresh equity in order to reduce their debts, which collectively total about $85 million.
Each company had taken on substantial debt in order to buy development sites, in Mosman Park, Mandurah, Baldivis and Coogee, at the peak of the property boom, only to see their values slashed.
The current directors of SAS Global Baldivis, Philip Meagher and Tony Beamish, placed the company into administration today but declined to provide any details when contacted by WA Business News.
Plans for the float, which was to be underwritten by Patersons Securities, are now on hold, Patersons spokesman John McGlue told WA Business News.
The woes facing the SAS group are likely to be a major headache for National Australia Bank, which has loaned $85 million to various entities in the group.
Investors who collectively put $80 million equity into the companies face an even bigger headache; the collapse in property values means thery will be lucky to gain any retiurn on their funds.
SAS Global Baldivis was planning to hold a shareholder meeting on Monday to approve a 1-for-40 share consolidation, which was one step in the restructuring of the group ahead of the Patersons-led float.
In 2006, the company paid $30.9 million for an 'urban deferred' development site south of Perth; in February this year, the site was valued by Knight Frank at $19.2 million, forcing it to seek extra equty.
Three other companies in the SAS group - SAS Global Mosman Park Equity Ltd, SAS Global Mandurah Ltd, and SAS Global Coogee Ltd - were also planning shareholder meetings this month to approve radical restructuring plans.
SAS Global Mosman Park holds a 50 per cent interest in the One Steel development site in McCabe St, North Fremantle. The property was bought for $61 million in August 2007 and is now valued at $27.5 million.
The company had been planning a 100:1 share consolidation and a $20 million capital raising to address a breach of its loan covenants.
SAS Global Coogee was planning a 10:1 share consolidation and a $4.9 million capital raising.
Mr Beamish wrote to shareholders in the Mosman Park and Coogee entities this week advising that resolutions for the share consolidation and the possible sale of assets had been withdrawn "as the company is currently restructuring the proposal", each letter stated.
SAS Global Mandurah was planning a 100:1 shae consolidation and a $4.9 million capital raising.
A fifth company, SAS Global Seville Grove Ltd, has previously announced plans to sell off some lots from its development project, near Armadale, to restore its loan covenants.
Mr Bell had been planning to use SAS Global Baldivis, to be renamed Mercury Consolidated Ltd, as a vehicle to build a larger listed property company.
If the Mercury deal had proceeded, it would have held an option to assume the management rights of the Mandurah, Coogee and Seville Grive entities.
