Company appoints a voluntary administrator to deal with the handful of assets not already repossessed
Last week’s appointment of Ferrier Hodgson as a receiver for around 160 trucks belonging to Gregorys Transport turns out to have been one of a chain of creditor actions against the company.
Gregorys has since been shut out of premises in Sydney and Brisbane, and had another receiver, PPB Advisory, appointed to garner value from the non-truck assets of the business, including its client book.
Other secured creditors have also appointed Ferrier Hodgson to take care of around 50 other truck assets, meaning receiver Brendan Richards is now responsible for over 200 trucks in Gregorys’ 300-strong fleet.
Many of these have already been repossessed, and are set to be sold off through a third party auction group.
Others have been leased temporarily to key customers of Gregorys, including Coca Cola Amatil, Schweppes, and Bluescope Steel.
This will both aid the customers’ transitionary arrangements and bring in some revenue for the assets.
The customers are also likely to make purchase offers on the trucks involved, a spokesman for Ferrier Hodgson says.
PPB Advisory receiver Nicholas Martin says maintaining continuity for customers is a priority in its dealings with Gregorys Transport.
“Our priority is to work with customers to ensure they have continuity of transport services,” he says.
“We are working hard to develop alternative arrangements that will minimise downtime and interruption to Gregorys’ customers, including transitioning affected customers to alternate service providers.”
A Supreme Court application to have Gregorys Transport formally wound up, brought about by the New South Wales WorkCover Authority, was adjourned this week after the company voluntarily appointed an administrator to handle what was left of the remaining assets.
BRI Ferrier – no relation to Ferrier Hodgson – signed on to that role on Tuesday.
It has scheduled a meeting of creditors for November 28 and will be required to report any plan of action by December 1.
Creditors will then vote on whether to attempt to trade back into business or liquidate all remaining assets.
Ferrier Hodgson says it is unlikely the company will trade again.
It described a widespread pattern of defaults for at least several months leading up to its appointment.
The company had been locked out of at least one of its premises, leading to the fear that trucks had or would be left abandoned.
That fear led to secured creditors moving quickly to repossess the assets.