Liquidator pursues MacMillan Group Services

The Sydney Allen liquidator is also pursuing MacMillan Investment Holdings' related company MacMillan Group Services for $300,000, money it claims was part of the purchase price, but was never declared when Print Warehouse bought the business. 

The liquidator claims Print Warehouse paid $1.6m, plus the assumption of "key employees entitlements", for the business, but says the amount that went through the Sydney Allen books was only $1.3m. There is no suggestion from the liquidator that Print Warehouse did anything wrong.

According to the liquidator, PW, the trustee of Print Warehouse, paid $1.3m on settlement, with MacMillan Group Services issuing an invoice for a further $300,000 for “costs in relation to services provided in connection with printing plant and equipment.” The liquidator claims the total, $1.6m, was in fact the purchase price for the Sydney Allen business, and that the directors of MacMillan Investment Holdings or MacMillan Group Services never accounted to the receiver and manager it appointed to Sydney Allen, Anthony Warner, for the $300,000 it received over the $1.3m.

The liquidator now intends to lodge a court application for recovery of the $300,000 from MacMillan Group Services. He has also issued an ‘in confidence’ report of the transaction to the ATO Integrity Centre, and says he intends to lodge a report to ASIC.

MacMillan Investment Holdings was the first ranked secured creditor of Sydney Allen, according to the liquidator it claimed it was owed $1.8m, which it then amended in its Proof of Debt form to $2.15m. However the liquidator rejected this, due to it said “lack of supporting evidence”. MIH did not appeal within the timeframe, but then appealed that decision, which it then lost.