External administrators have been appointed to high-profile Perth expo company Media and Events Australia Pty Ltd, leaving uncertainty for unsecured creditors owed as much as $1 million.
External administrators have been appointed to high-profile Perth expo company Media and Events Australia Pty Ltd, leaving uncertainty for unsecured creditors owed as much as $1 million.
Brian McMaster and Jack James from KordaMentha were appointed under a voluntary administration on June 8, about 12 months after Media & Events took over the events operations of Consolidated Business Media Pty Ltd, which collapsed owing creditors up to $5 million.
The appointment of administrators to Media & Events came after clients were advised that Consolidated Events Australia (a division of CBM, which was sold to Media & Events last year) had “transferred and assigned” its contracts to Australian Corporate Exhibitions, a business managed by Greg Millar, the proprietor of Media & Events and former general manager of CBM.
Reliable sources said unsecured creditors of Media & Events could amount to between $800,000 and $1 million.
Mr McMaster told WA Business News he was under strict instruction from John Webb, a sales consultant with Media & Events and a former director of CBM, not to talk to the newspaper.
Mr McMaster and Mr James were appointed as receiver managers of CBM in 2005 by Mr Webb’s wife who had become a secured creditor by purchasing the company’s debt to BankWest.
Mr Millar said he believed creditors of Media & Events amounted to only about $200,000 and he wanted to be on the record as saying that no exhibitor has lost or will lose their money.
“I’m looking forward to entering into a deed with creditors,” he said.
It has been a turbulent few years for the expo and events operations owned successively by CBM, Media & Events and now Australian Corporate Exhibitions. WA Business News reported that CBM’s assets were transferred to Media & Events in June 2004, in the same month CBM called in liquidator Gary Anderson. Mr Anderson said he had investigated that transaction and a number of CBM’s creditors were now funding moves for a public examination of the arrangements.
Events managed or planned by Media & Events include the Australian Industry Expo, the My Home Expo and the rescheduled Perth Woman Expo. They have all attracted several complaints by exhibitors to WA Business News.
The changing of event dates and venues (in some cases up to three times), often after significant payments have been made to the organisers, have been the main concern of the complainants.
The Perth Woman Expo was first scheduled for November 2004 in Claremont, then the venue was shifted to Perth Convention Centre, then the date and venue were shifted to February 2005 at Burswood Dome. It was shifted again to May 2005 and once more to October or November. The last postponement occurred only days before Media & Events transferred its contracts to Australian Corporate Exhibitions.
