Perth-founded IT company XciteLogic has been placed in the hands of administrators with debts of just under $4 million.
Grant Thornton has taken over operation of the company as administrator and will hold a creditors' meeting tomorrow to provide an update on the state of the business’ finances.
Administrator Dino Travaglini told Business News the company’s total debt amounted to $3.8 million, with $1.1 million of that consisting of taxes owed to the Australian Tax Office.
The remainder was debts owed to suppliers, financiers and other creditors.
Mr Travaglini said XciteLogic had already laid off about 55 staff in expectation of a company restructure.
‘The company spent quite a considerable amount on the development of its intellectual property and also invested [significantly] in research and development,” he said.
“[In addition] there was fairly strong expansion interstate and, in hindsight, it appears that the cost of those expansions and the investment in research and development probably required further capital.”
About 25 staff remained as employees across offices in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, but were the subject of investigations into the ongoing viability of the company.
XciteLogic’s assets were expected to be sold off with Grant Thornton today advertising for expressions of interest in the tangible assets as well as intellectual property.
The company was established by Sean Cuneen and Tony Panetta. Between 2008 and 2012 revenue had grown by 600 per cent and staff numbers grew from 22 to a peak of 105.
