THREE companies that were part of the collapsed engineering conglomerate Hastie Group have been sold for an undisclosed sum.
The three companies, which are Hastie Services Pty Ltd, Spectrum Fire & Security in Australia and Cowley Services in New Zealand, were part of a management buyout.
Together, the three companies formed the Hastie Services group, which provided technical maintenance services; commercial and industrial heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; refrigeration; fire detection and fire suppressant equipment.
The new holding entity for the three businesses is TSC Group Holdings.
The management buy-out team was led by current Hastie Services chief executive Roger Jowett, and supported by Sydney-based specialist funds manager Allegro Funds.
"This is a great step forward for Hastie Services, which transitions to new and stable ownership with no debt, strong cash reserves and a disciplined management team," Jowett said in a statement released yesterday.
Jowett said the companies within Hastie Services had been stabilised since receivers were appointed four months ago and staff levels had been cut through redundancies and resignations.
About 850 jobs have been retained out of 1,200.
PPB Advisory was appointed administrator to 44 companies within the Hastie Group in May this year.
The receiver and manager of the Hastie Group, McGrathNicol, has been attempting to trade on a 'business as usual' basis since the collapse.
Last month McGrathNicol announced the sale of another Hastie Group company, Gordon Brothers Industries in Victoria.
The 95-year-old business has 130 employees and was sold to the company's management for an undisclosed sum.
The Hastie Group collapsed with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of debt. Accounting irregularities at the Hastie Group also came to light in the wake of the collapse.
The irregularities, which are currently being investigated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), date back to 2008-09 and total $23 million. ASIC is also looking into the transfer of $3 million from Dubai to Sydney just days before the collapse.
Worldwide the company had 7000 employees with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom and Middle East.
