Matt Woods

Shareholders in uranium miner Paladin Energy will end up owning just 2 per cent of the company under a recapitalisation plan that will include a major debt for equity swap and a $US115 million high yield secured note raising.

ASX-listed AnaeCo has gone into administration after Monadelphous Group terminated an $11.5 million contract with the waste technology company and a Chinese enterprise.

King & Wood Mallesons Partner Nathan Collins, who was involved in the debt restructuring of troubled uranium miner Paladin Energy, says the deal, which left existing shareholders with a 2 per cent stake, was the only real option for the company.

Global accounting firm KPMG Australia has appointed Matthew Woods as its Western Australian state chair.

Perth-based Matthew Woods will be the joint leader of KPMG's greatly expanded insolvency practice after the 'Big 4' accounting firm finalised a deal to acquire Ferrier Hodgson. The merged entity will have 27 partners nationally and be the largest practice in WA.

As editor of Business News, I’m delighted to introduce a new feature that highlights the best of Western Australia. Great for the State is a 12-page lift-out that will be published each month over the course of 2019.

SPECIAL REPORT: Accounting firms are widening their services into new areas as they seek a competitive edge.

WA has so far been spared the worst of COVID-19 but the experience has nonetheless triggered big changes in workplace management and planning.

Staff numbers at WA’s accounting firms have experienced their largest fall in more than 20 years, though the change was highly variable.

Perth’s major accounting firms have about 70 per cent of their staff back in the office after COVID, but lots of variation sits behind that number.

KPMG has selected its global head of mining Trevor Hart to chair its WA practice, with Matthew Woods stepping down from the role after just over two years.

The liquidators of Brierty have launched Supreme Court action to recover millions of dollars from 12 companies they claim received payments while the civil and mining contractor was insolvent.

The man at the centre of a $126 million alleged betting scandal has been placed in bankruptcy by the Federal Court, forced to represent himself amid what he described as a “media frenzy”.

Avid businesses may have been insolvent as early as November 2019, administrators believe, with underquoted tenders and a Decmil dispute contributing to the demise.

Unsecured creditors of Avid Resources are likely to receive nothing, but liquidators have said they will consider an insolvent trading claim.

When administrators from Deloitte walked into the West Perth offices of WBHO Infrastructure in February, they knew speed would be critical to rescuing the business.

The liquidators of Brierty have been given the all-clear to pursue $8.7 million in alleged preferential payments made before the contractor’s 2017 collapse.

Realtek has filed a motion in the Federal Court to recover a $2.5 million loan from a Perth hearing tech company once celebrated by Time Magazine, but now in administration.