Major Sydney residential developer Bathla Group has fallen into administration after months of mounting financial pressure.
Administrators from Teneo were today appointed to its main corporate entity, Universal Property Group, as well as Raj & Jai Construction, a company linked to the Bathla Group, documents lodged with ASIC show.
Voluntary administration is when an independent administrator takes control of a company in financial trouble and assesses its future.
Creditors then generally decide whether the company can be restructured or should be wound up.
Bathla Group is a major developer of lower-cost homes, townhouses and apartments, particularly in Western Sydney suburbs including Schofields, Marsden Park and Tallawong.
According to its website, 22,000 apartment dwellings and 3,500 homes are in the developer's "project pipeline".
In an Instagram post, managing director Bhart Bhushan said the developer was dealing with a "perfect storm" of softening sales, tax change impacts and higher construction costs.
As at June 30 last year, Universal Property Group had $3.2 billion in liabilities, the majority of which was reportedly owed to private credit funds.
The collapse is likely to intensify scrutiny of Bathla's extensive use of private credit to finance its property developments as administrators begin assessing the financial position of the affected companies.
Teneo appointed as voluntary administrator
In a statement, the administrators said their immediate priority was to "stabilise the Group's operations" and work with lenders and other stakeholders to support employees and the continued delivery of projects.
"Our priority is to stabilise the business so that construction activity and property settlements can continue in the ordinary course," Teneo Australia Financial Advisory head Stephen Longley said.
Bathla chief executive Robert Loader said the business has been through a period of "declining sales and falling property prices, while construction costs have increased".
Bathla Group operates through a highly complex corporate structure, with Universal Property Group, its main corporate entity, sitting at the top of a network of hundreds of separate companies, according to ASIC records.
Many are numbered UPG entities that extend as high as UPG 460. Others operate under different company names.
ASIC records Universal Property Group as the ultimate holding company for many of these entities.
Buyers in limbo
Kate, who does not wish to use her real name, bought an off-the-plan freestanding house in Lochinvar, in regional New South Wales, for $709,990 in the middle of last year.
Documents seen by ABC News confirm the purchase.
Kate told ABC News that, as a renter, she had been relying on the property becoming her family home.
"I am very worried and just scared this could jeopardise the completion of the house," the single mother said.
Kate said Bathla employees had previously told her the house would be ready by June, then August, but that the expected completion had since been pushed back to the end of this year.
"I have been nervous for some time, to be honest, as there seems to be no-one there working on the property on many days," she said.
"It seems like a ghost town."
Kate said she had hoped the house would help provide security for her two young daughters.
In a contract for sale seen by ABC News, Janice Cahill bought a two-bedroom apartment off the plan in a new development at Kembla Grange, near Wollongong.
She said she was initially told the apartment would be ready in September last year. The expected completion date was then pushed back repeatedly, to December 2025, March 2026, April, August and September.
She said the latest date she was given was December 31 this year.
Living in a studio apartment while she waits, Ms Cahill said she was paying both rent and storage costs.
"I'm more than exasperated. I'm at my wits' end," she said.
She said the continuing delays had become an "absolute nightmare", particularly with a double knee replacement surgery approaching.
Ms Cahill said she had received no contact from Bathla since news of the company's voluntary administration emerged this morning.
"I'm starting to feel hopeless. It feels like they don't want to know."
