Sub-contractors wait for pay

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 8

Sub-contractors wait for pay

By

TOM METCALFE

Sub-contractors on the Price Waterhouse building in Christchurch are waiting to hear if they will be paid for their recent work by the contractor, Wilkins and Davies, which went into receivership on Friday. While the lead financier on the building, NZI Bank, has assured the sub-contractors that they will be paid for their work since the receivership, there is nd word yet from the Wilkins and Davies receivers about existing debts for work already done.

The receivers said in a statement yesterday that the completion of the company’s main construction contracts depended on support from clients, . subcontractors and workers. The receivers would consult

those parties, and if support was forthcoming, Wilkins and Davies would complete its contracts. Yesterday, the receiver of the Company that is developing the Price Waterhouse building was trying to get a list of outstanding debts to sub-contractors on the project.

Mr Tony Lewis, the receiver of One One Nine, said he was waiting for the Wilkins and Davies receiver to furnish the list.

One One Nine is a joint venture between Advantage Corporation (the building’s original developer, now in receivership) and Wilkins and Davies.

One One Nine has paid a monthly fee to Wilkins and Davies as the building’s contractor.

Mr Lewis said the fee for November would not be paid to Wilkins and Davies until the matter of paying the subcontractors for work already done was resolved.

Less than $1 million of work was still to be done oh the building, and One One Nine was anxious that the sub-contractors be paid for completed work and for them to finish the building.

While some sub-contractors were back at work in the building yesterday, others were waiting until their payment was settled to return to the job.

It was possible that One One Nine might meet some of the Wilkins and Davies debts to the sub-contractors, or pay them from the withheld November fee, said Mr Lewis.

The 21-storey Price Waterhouse building, Christchurch’s tallest, is on schedule to be finished by Christmas in spite of financial problems in associated companies.

The building will be auctioned in two weeks at the insistence of the first mortgagee, NZI Bank. The sale is not expected to cover the second mortgage of about $l4 million, held by DFC and guaranteed by Wilkins and Davies.

Wilkins and Davies went into receivership last week when DFC refused to release it from the guarantee. The guarantee was described as the last obstacle to a financial restructuring of the company, which lost $2B million in its last financial year.