Dyldam CEO Sam Fayad facing bankruptcy threat
Dyldam Development boss Sam Fayad is facing the threat of bankruptcy after being ordered by the NSW Supreme Court to pay a debt of $1.6 million.
A bankruptcy notice served by Barrak Lawyers on behalf of their client Eid Azzi – obtained by The Australian Financial Review – orders Mr Fayad to pay $1,638,421.16 within 21 days of service of the January 13 notice or “bankruptcy proceedings may be taken against you”.
Mr Fayad declined to comment on the matter, when contacted by The Australian Financial Review.
The Azzi family owns Sydney Excavations Group, a large demolition and earthworks company that has carried out work for major developers including Greenland and Poly Global.
An December 8 judgment handed down in the equity division of the NSW Supreme Court lists Mr Azzi as the plaintiff and NRSF Investment Fund as the first defendant and Sam Fayad as the second defendant.
Mr Fayad is the director of NRSF Investment Fund.
According to the December 8 judgment of Justice Lindsay, an order was made in favour of the plaintiff in the sum of $1,628,487. The defendants were also ordered to pay the plaintiff’s legal costs.
Mr Fayad is a director of Dyldam’s only active company, Dyldam Developments Pty Ltd, a construction business jointly controlled by the Fayad family and Dyldam founder Joseph Khattar and his family.
Mr Fayad is the brother-in-law of Mr Khattar, with whom he is involved in an ongoing financial dispute.
Until as recently as December, a summary of the history of Dyldam on the company website read that it was “founded in 1969 by Naim Khattar and Joe Khattar, AM. Together they created aspirational apartments for Australian families.”
This statement has been removed and there is no reference to the Khattar family on the Dyldam website, which simply says that “Dyldam was founded in 1969 to create aspirational apartments for Australian families”.
Mr Fayad is also a director of 22 Dyldam companies in voluntary administration and whose assets, including eight development sites, were repossessed by McGrathNicol, acting as agents and receivers for a group of offshore lenders.
In his statement to creditors of the 22 companies in administration and receivership on January 13, Mr Fayad said one of those companies, Hills Shoppingtown Pty Ltd – a special-purpose entity undertaking a mixed-use development in Baulkam Hills – was party to family-related litigation before the NSW Supreme Court.
Before running into financial difficulties, Dyldam was one of the country’s biggest developers and builders of apartments and gained a reputation as the “Meriton of the West”.
