Collapsed major sydney developer Bathla Group appears to have staved off the immediate threat of liquidation, after its administrators extended a self-imposed deadline for $20 million in funding from the group’s private lenders for another 24 hours.
Teneo was appointed after Bathla entered voluntary administration last week owing debts of more than $3.3 billion. The administrators had been negotiating with the dozens of private lenders who had propped up the company over years to obtain short-term funding to pay 350 staff and complete almost-finished construction projects.
It had initially set a deadline of Thursday, the payroll deadline for Bathla’s staff who haven’t been paid for eight weeks. But on Tuesday morning, Stephen Longley, a senior managing director at Teneo, told Nine’s Today program that his administrators would begin wrapping up the company by the end of the day. He warned Bathla’s financial situation was “very dire” and the administrators were running out of hope to find funding…