Kenik collapses: Melbourne-based construction company leaves behind $6million trail of debt

By MAX ALDRED FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 02:18 BST, 12 May 2025 | Updated: 03:11 BST, 12 May 2025

Creditors of a collapsed construction company are millions of dollars out of pocket from a number of projects across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Kenik was wound up in Queensland’s Supreme Court earlier in the year after another business launched legal action against the builder. 

The Melbourne-based company had been in the property and construction industry for more than 25 years. 

Kenik now owes more than 200 creditors a combined total of $6.6million a new report lodged to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has revealed. 

The document revealed the company’s creditors hailed from five major projects. 

Kenik had been enveloped in a lengthy series of legal battles in its fight to remain in business. 

Joinery manufacturer and creditor Barrett Group launched a winding up application against Kenik in February 2024.

Court records showed the builder attempted to delay the proceedings.

Creditors of a collapsed construction company are $6million out of pocket, records showed

Kenik sought to await the result of a separate payment dispute with Taringa Property Group, according to the Herald Sun.

Kenik hoped to pay off its debts if it won or settled the case.

Taringa Property Group had rejected Kenik’s claimed construction costs after their Coles-anchored shopping project in Brisbane ballooned to nearly $10million, following construction delays.

The property group were ordered to pay Kenik $4.218million in the courts.

The group challenged the decision since then, and has launched proceedings to block Kenik from receiving the money.

Taringa Property Group also lodged a separate $11million breach of contract claim.

The Queensland Supreme Court rejected Kenik’s request for a stay of the prosecution of the winding up order.

The Judge found ‘Kenik requires all the dominoes to fall in its favour and, even if they did, the creditors would be left waiting even longer’.

A complicated series of separate proceedings led a Queensland Judge to order Kenik to wind up their business earlier in 2025

He ordered the company to be wound up in insolvency in February.

Insolvency experts from Hall Chadwick were appointed as liquidators.

The new document revealed the company’s creditors hailed from five major projects.

The company held a lengthy list of trade creditors from projects spanning the East Coast.

Creditors in a project in Sunshine, Melbourne, were owed $807,020.

Others for projects in Bringelly, west Sydney, and Yallah, Woollongong, were owed $348,196 and $1.4million respectively.

Creditors for a project in Chuwar, Ipswich were owed $891,083, while Taringa creditors were left at a loss of $2.2million.

Court documents showed the company had not traded since August 2023, when it lost its building licence.

More to come. 

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Kenik collapses: Melbourne-based construction company leaves behind $6million trail of debt

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