Grocon loans to Daniel Grollo top $90m
A new document filed with the corporate watchdog reveals fallen construction and development giant Grocon has more than $90 million of loans outstanding to executive chairman Daniel Grollo and his wife Katherina and entities he ultimately controls.
The revelation comes ahead of the crunch second creditor meeting later this month that will decide the fate of Grocon, with much of the company now in the hands of administrators at KordaMentha.
The latest filings with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission include a $63 million loan to Mr Grollo and his wife Katherina from a Grocon entity in administration. Combined with other loans made to Mr Grollo or to entities he ultimately owns, over $90 million has been lent to the property scion from entities in administration.
The $63,171,793 loan to Twenty Twenty 2 Family Trust is included in a report on company activities and property (ROCAP) of Grocon Group Holdings filed with ASIC on March 9.
Grocon Group Holdings is the parent entity of the construction business run by Mr Grollo and part of a second batch of 45 companies in the group, which were put into administration at the end of February. In total 87 Grocon companies are in administration.
Twenty Twenty2 Pty Ltd as trustee for the Twenty Twenty2 trust is jointly owned by Mr Grollo and his wife Katherina Grollo It is not in administration.
An earlier ROCAP report for Grocon Pty Ltd, one of the original 39 companies put into administration in November, revealed an $11.5 million loan to Mr Grollo and a $4.9 million loan to Ploutus Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of CSFM Pty Ltd which is jointly owned by Mr Grollo and Katherina Grollo.
Also included in the same ROCAP report are loans totalling $11.6 million to Grocon Funds Management, GFM Investment Services and GFM Delivery Services, all subsidiaries of companies that are ultimately owned by Mr Grollo.
A spokeswoman for Grocon and Mr Grollo declined to comment.
Unsecured creditors of Grocon who are owed around $125 million, will vote later this month on whether to back Mr Grollo proposed deed of company arrangement (DOCA) which will be based on Grocon winning its $270 million court case with the NSW government over the Barangaroo Central project in Sydney and then repaying creditors from the proceeds.
The alternative would be to liquidate the group, which would allow liquidators to chase down assets in other related companies not in administration.
ASX-listed fund manager APN Property is pushing for liquidation of the Grocon empire as it looks to recoup around $20 million on a joint venture office project with Grocon that turned sour.
APN representative Anthony Simpson noted the $63 million loan was only disclosed as part of the ROCAP document lodged with ASIC on March 9 and was not disclosed in the first creditors’ meeting for the second batch of 45 Grocon companies in administration held on March 4.
“The question is where did all of this money go and where is it now?” Mr Simpson said.
“APN has stated from the outset that it requires full transparency and disclosure from Daniel Grollo so a full explanation of where this money went is critical to the voluntary administration process.”
A spokesman for KordaMentha declined to comment.
