ARN

Telco reseller goes into administration owing $500K

Highrise Telecoms supplied telco services to business and residential consumers

Telecommunications reseller Highrise Telecoms has been placed under external administration owing $497,993 to unsecured creditors.

Among the creditors is telecommunications wholesale aggregator Buroserv, who supplies telecommunications products and services using a combination of its own and other carrier network facilities.

Buroserv claims $428,000 in money owed by Highrise Telecoms - also listed as creditors are Thorn Australia ($9,000), Macquarie Leasing ($50,000) and the Australian Taxation Office ($9,600).

Highrise Telecoms was registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in March 2014.

On 5 October, a notice was issued that the company had been placed under external administration and David Ian Mansfield and Neil Robert Cussen from Deloitte had been appointed the administrators.

Prior to that, ASIC had proposed the deregistration of the company, but that did not go through.

There was no quorum in the first meeting of creditors, however there has been a dispute in the Federal Court of Australia regarding the validity of the appointment of joint administrators.

Deloitte's administrators were purportedly appointed by Buroserv Australia, which has been declared valid in a judgement on 11 December.

Part of the issue is a Master Supply Agreement purportedly signed by Francesco Andreone as a director of the company and in which the company agreed to purchase certain telecommunication products and services from Buroserv. Andreone then disputed the appointment of the administrators.

According to court documents of the first hearing on 29 October, given the disputation of their appointments, the administrators have not been able to "to actively trade the company’s business, or sufficiently explore appropriate avenues to best serve the interests of the company’s creditors".

"Mansfield has deposed that, if the convening period is not extended, it is likely that the plaintiffs will be left with no option but to recommend that the company be placed in liquidation."

A further case management hearing has been scheduled for 18 February 2019.

ARN had not heard from the administrators at the time of writing.