The Ralan Group William O'Dwyer

<div class="row" data-reactroot=""><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="row ci"><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="ci cl"><p>Developer Ralan Group&#x27;s sole director William O&#x27;Dwyer has partnered with an established Sydney developer in order to offer its 1,600 unsecured creditors new apartments.</p><p>Following the company&#x27;s dramatic <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-group-goes-into-administration">$550 million collapse</a>, which left hundreds of Gold Coast and Sydney off-the-plan apartment buyers out of pocket, O&#x27;Dwyer has been working to course-correct with the Sydney developer <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-group-creditors-face-277m-shortfall-">entering voluntary administration</a> at the end of July last year.</p><p>In December, Ralan’s creditors voted to put a 318-apartment project in the Sydney suburb of Arncliffe into liquidation while creditors who placed deposits for the group’s Gold Coast developments <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-creditors-vote-in-favour-of-doca">accepted</a> O’Dwyer&#x27;s controversial <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-offers-ultimatum">deed of company arrangement (DOCA)</a>. </p><p>Under the deed, creditors will be offered discounts on prime Sydney apartments that equate to the <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-group-creditors-face-277m-shortfall-">full amount</a> of the funds owed to each creditor. The arrangement will enable a creditor who is owed $50,000 to buy an apartment valued at $500,000 for $450,000.</p><p>O&#x27;Dwyer revealed the identity of his new business partner to the <a href="https://www.afr.com/property/residential/william-o-dwyer-names-sydney-developer-jean-nassif-as-mr-x-20200130-p53w1p"><em>Australian Financial Review</em></a><em>,</em> until now known as “Mr X”, as controversial Sydney developer Jean Nassif of Toplace Group.</p></div></div></div><div class="row ci"><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="ci cl"><div><picture><img src="https://tud-prod-tudmedia-oj9w2zshuo0o.s3.amazonaws.com/raw/images/7288d4c4-21e1-4d00-aaf1-8ed2d563197b.jpg" width="800"/></picture><div><span style="align-content:center;opacity:0.8">▲ The Toplace director will also take control of seven separate Ralan companies involved with various Gold Coast apartment projects.</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="row ci"><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="ci cl"><p><br>Nassif will commit to a five-year business plan with O’Dwyer to enable Ralan’s creditors to use their deposits to buy more apartments he plans to develop under the deed.</p><p>Toplace, which holds a multi-billion-dollar pipeline of projects, will launch several new apartment towers in Sydney before mid-February—the first of which a new 300-unit apartment complex located within six minutes drive from the Sydney CBD.</p><p>In order for the deed to be upheld, O&#x27;Dwyer will have to sell 500 apartments per year over the next three years at discounted rates to its unsecured creditors.</p><p>The deed will also be subject to termination if Ralan Group is found to be in breach of yearly sales targets and discounts, or is found to be bankrupt or subject to court action by creditors.</p><p>Nassif, who has worked with O&#x27;Dwyer in the past, was incentivised by the ability to access 1,600 new clients yet stated in legal documents that only 50 per cent of each development would be available as Ralan “discount units”.</p><p>Ralan voluntary administrator Grant Thornton has stood by its recommendation as the DOCA was predicated on “too many conditions” to work.</p><p>The administrators highlighted to creditors in its investigation that the collapsed group had exhibited “numerous breaches of the Corporation Act” and had been running insolvent since 2014.</p><p>It was also found through an analysis of cashflow that O&#x27;Dwyer had been siphoning funds out of the company between 2016 and 2019 to spend on personal expenses, holidays and bitcoin.</p><p>Ralan’s major funders include major banks such as Westpac, NAB and St George, along with mezzanine financiers such as Balmain and Wingate.</p><p>According to O&#x27;Dwyers lawyers Johnson Winter &amp; Slattery, the Ralan director will be appointed as the “exclusive selling agent” to market pre-sale units on upcoming Toplace developers within Sydney.</p><p><em>The Urban Developer </em>reached out to Toplace, but the developer did not return enquiries by the time of publication.</p></div></div></div></div></div>

Ralan Group sole director William O'Dwyer has partnered with an established Sydney developer.

William O'Dwyer Ralan Group

<div class="row" data-reactroot=""><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="row ci"><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="ci cl"><p>A group of creditors from the collapsed Ralan Group have accepted a plan by the stricken apartment developer’s founder William O’Dwyer to launch a <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-offers-ultimatum">deed of company arrangement</a> (DOCA). </p><p>Ralan, which was building on the Gold Coast and Sydney, <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-group-creditors-face-277m-shortfall-">recently collapsed</a> owing funds of $564 million to more than 1,500 secured and non-secured creditors.</p><p>The proposed deed of company arrangement would allow victims to deduct the deposits owed to them from the purchase price of new units and back a new scheme to buy more apartments from a separate, unnamed developer with the promise of discounted prices.</p><p>Grant Thornton<a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-group-goes-into-administration"> joint administrators</a> Said Jahani, Philip Campbell-Wilson and Graham Killer recommended creditors vote to wind up the company which owed its lenders, bankers, trade creditors and buyers—many of Chinese background, who released their down payments for apartments on the Gold Coast and Sydney.</p><p>The majority of creditors voted in favour of liquidation for The Orchid at Arncliffe a 318-apartment residential project in Sydney.</p><p>However, the majority of creditors voted in favour of the deed for Ralan Group&#x27;s Gold Coast companies, which are overseeing its Ruby development.</p><p>The rest of the group&#x27;s 50 companies—mostly inactive—were also in liquidation.</p><p>“These companies now have 15 days to sign the Deed of Company Arrangement giving effect to the outcome of today’s vote,” Grant Thornton national managing partner Said Jahani said. </p><p>However, for one of the deed&#x27;s Gold Coast entities, Ralan Paradise No 2 Pty Limited, a split vote meant an intervening vote from administrators.</p><p>For this entity: 112 creditors owed $60,307 voted for the deed but 103 creditors owed $87,720 voted against the deed. </p><p>“Through our investigation it has become abundantly clear that Ralan has been unable to pay its creditors for some time,” Jahani said.</p><p>“By liquidating the majority of companies in the Group, we can attempt to recoup as much as possible for creditors’—based on the potential actions available to a liquidator pursuant to the Corporations Act.”</p><p>Grant Thornton noted that creditors of the DOCA would now place the onus on O’Dwyer for him to reveal the identity of the mystery developer. </p><p>O&#x27;Dwyer has refused to name its third-party developer “Mr X” despite demands from creditors. </p><p>Jahani warned that even though a portion of the deed was successfully executed, it would be a long time before buyers would see their money as sites have yet to be procured or planned.</p><p>After the signing of the DOCA in 15 days, Ralan&#x27;s Gold Coast buyers will have their deposits owed deducted from the future purchase prices of new units.</p></div></div></div></div></div>

A group of creditors from the collapsed Ralan Group have accepted a plan by the stricken apartment developer’s founder William O’Dwyer.

Ralan Group

<div class="row" data-reactroot=""><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="row ci"><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="ci cl"><p>In an attempt to deliberately conceal the extent of its debts owed to creditors, a report has revealed that apartment developer Ralan Group traded insolvent as early as 2014. </p><p>The high-profile Sydney group <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-group-creditors-face-277m-shortfall-">collapsed</a> at the end of July after 20 years as a sales agency and developer, leaving a $2 billion development pipeline of more than 3,000 residential units and accommodation assets of 600-plus rooms in disarray. </p><p>Ralan, whose flagship project is the $1.4 billion Ruby Collection at Surfers Paradise, has been found to owe $238 million to banks and financiers as well as $241 million to hundreds of apartment buyers after undertaking a Ponzi fund raising model.</p><p>Some of Ralan&#x27;s 1,500 creditors have alleged they were owed as much as $500,000 in unsecured deposits on their Sydney and Gold Coast off-the-plan purchases.</p><p>According to <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/ralan-group-goes-into-administration">voluntary administrator</a> Grant Thornton, Ralan, led by director William O&#x27;Dwyer, has been insolvent since 2014 and was altering its records in the lead-up to its recent collapse.</p><p>Administrators filed to ASIC on November 28, after reviewing 105 accounts for the period between dating back to 2016.</p></div></div></div><div class="row ci"><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="ci cl"><div><picture><img src="https://tud-prod-tudmedia-oj9w2zshuo0o.s3.amazonaws.com/raw/images/6c730c1e-e4cf-477e-9bfd-e61e28b9adae.jpg" width="800"/></picture><div><span style="align-content:center;opacity:0.8">▲ Ralan’s major creditors include banks such as Westpac, NAB and St George, along with financiers such as Balmain and Wingate.</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="row ci"><div class="cell cs12 cx12"><div class="ci cl"><p></p><p>Grant Thornton found that Ralan&#x27;s funds were used to pay for exorbitant construction costs in unprofitable projects, running costs and large interest payments to private lenders and apartment buyers who provided their apartment deposits as loans.</p><p>It was also found through an analysis of cashflow that O&#x27;Dwyer had been siphoning funds out of the company between 2016 and 2019 to spend on personal expenses, holidays and bitcoin.</p><p>“This was a large and complex business with a diverse range of stakeholders and creditors,” Grant Thornton Australia managing partner Said Jahani said. </p><p>“The nature of their funding model, coupled with what we have determined to be a deliberate effort to conceal the extent of debts owed to purchasers who had released their deposits from Ralan’s financiers by altering the Group’s records benefitted William O’Dwyer and his related parties.”</p><p>It was found that funds came in to the group from lenders who provided finance, the sale of properties from completed developments and purchasers who agreed to release their deposit in return for interest of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent.</p><p>“Unfortunately due to the extent and duration of the alleged financial misconduct within The Ralan Group—there may be very little left for creditors.”</p><p>Grant Thornton has now recommended creditors be given the opportunity to consider the report at the second meeting of creditors to be held on 9 December where the future of the Group will be determined.</p><p>Creditors were last briefed in August when more than 1,000 people  filled the Wesley Conference Centre on Pitt Street in Sydney.</p></div></div></div></div></div>

Stricken apartment developer Ralan Group has been found to have been trading insolvent from early 201. 

RALAN GROUP