{"id":84721,"date":"2026-09-01T05:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/84721\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:45:13","slug":"bathla-group-collapse-administrator-warns-of-dire-financial-situation-for-major-sydney-developer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/84721\/","title":{"rendered":"Bathla Group collapse: Administrator warns of dire financial situation for major Sydney developer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated September 1, 2026 \u2014 3:17pm,first published 10:59am<\/p>\n

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The administrator for collapsed major Sydney developer Bathla has declared its financial situation \u201cvery dire\u201d and warned the company would start to be wound up late Tuesday afternoon if it does not get the funding it needs in the coming hours.<\/p>\n

Teneo\u2019s Stephen Longley, the administrator for Bathla Group, said administrators were running out of hope for a holistic solution to finish the 45 projects under construction, while NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey intervened to call on private lenders to take responsibility for the collapse.<\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen Longley speaking at a press conference at Bathla\u2019s head office on Monday.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had intensive discussions with lenders, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to get enough funding in place to be able to finish those 45 projects. We need to put together a minimum viable structure to deliver the projects,\u201d he told the Today program.<\/p>\n

Bathla Group entered voluntary administration<\/a> last Tuesday, owing debts of more than $3.3 billion<\/a>. Teneo on Monday morning set a Thursday deadline to find $20 million to repay eight weeks of staff wages and fund near-complete projects. But after a meeting with lenders on Monday night, Teneo brought the deadline forward to Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The company \u201cput out a broadcast\u201d late on Monday to construction lenders and said they would need commitments within 24 hours, Longley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need the funding for is the head office cost. There\u2019s 350 staff at head office, most of which are mission-critical to deliver those projects, and all the other costs associated with supporting the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA tower crane was in operation above Bathla\u2019s residential project in Pemulwuy on Tuesday.Oscar Colman<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll start planning at the end of the day for the wind down of the business, and we\u2019ll be meeting with staff,\u201d he said. \u201cPayroll is due on Thursday. As administrators, we\u2019re personally liable for paying that payroll, even if a company doesn\u2019t have any money, which it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Some private capital lenders, who have emerged as a key element in Bathla\u2019s collapse<\/a>, have taken control of individual worksites and will be responsible for delivering certain projects. For instance, private equity group PAG has been funding Bathla\u2019s major apartment complex in Pemulwuy, 10 kilometres west of Parramatta. Dozens of subcontractors were told in an onsite meeting on Tuesday morning they would be paid by PAG to finish the project.<\/p>\n

Mookhey, speaking while on a trade trip in New Delhi on Tuesday afternoon, called on the private lenders to step in to support the administrators, saying it was not fair to ask taxpayers to bail out the companies that \u201ctook the risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Property<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first obligation belongs to the private credit firms,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are some of the most sophisticated lenders in the Australian economy. They took the risk. The onus is on them to step up and support the administrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Premier Chris Minns, also on the trip, said he was concerned about the risk of contagion across the construction industry as a result of the collapse but stood by the decision not to bail the company out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am concerned about it. Like most volume builders, they use a range of contractors as part of their building, so we\u2019re keeping an eye on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] they effectively asked for a line of credit from NSW taxpayers, and it\u2019s not my money; it\u2019s NSW taxpayer money. And I wasn\u2019t convinced that that was the best use of taxpayer money, particularly as we didn\u2019t have a detailed or deep understanding as to how Bathla got into these circumstances in the first place, and what the exposure would be for NSW taxpayers if we did tip money in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the worst-case scenario would have been we extended a line of credit, we gave them tens of millions of dollars, and then the inevitable happened in a couple of weeks\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n

One foreman for the Pemulwuy site, who identified himself as Charbel, told reporters outside the meeting he was assured by the administrators that the Pemulwuy apartment block would be completed. But he was less hopeful about the other Bathla sites he was working on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have no idea what is going on there,\u201d he said. \u201c[We\u2019re] still waiting for the administrator. They say they have zero money on the accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have four kids, I have staff to pay \u2026 I have contractors to pay, and we don\u2019t know. That\u2019s our problem in the industry. No one can guarantee our money. If we do any work, for any business, we\u2019re always losing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"EllieEllie Busby<\/a> is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"AnthonyAnthony Segaert<\/a> is the Parramatta bureau chief at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously an urban affairs reporter.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated September 1, 2026 \u2014 3:17pm,first published 10:59am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[247],"class_list":["post-84721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}