PixiFoto creditors, the vast majority of whom are ex-employees, will have to wait at least another month before having any insight into what kind of settlement they can expect.
Company directors Peter and Michael Watt have provided the administrator, BCR Advisory, a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA), which it is currently examining.
The Supreme Court of NSW has granted BCR Advisory an extension of time before the second creditor’s meeting, which is scheduled for September 27.
‘The options available are whether it is our view that the creditors should accept the proposed DOCA, whether the company should be wound up, or if the administration should end,’ Damien O’Reilly, senior manager, BCR Advisory, explained in a statement to Photo Counter.
‘As you can appreciate, until our examination and consideration of all of the relevant facts is complete, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on the particulars of the proposal.’
He continued: ‘However by way of update, throughout the course of our administration to date, we have identified 278 employees of the Company.
‘The Company has traded for 25 years, predominately employing female staff. Over this period, there have been many changes from full-time to part-time, maternity leave, become casual employees and then changed back to full-time employment. All of which require a time-consuming analysis of each employee’s record in order to determine the correct quantum of employee entitlements.
‘These figures play a vital role in the Company considering its future as well as in our reporting to creditors on the proposal put forward by the directors for the Company’s future. Considering the complexity of this task and the limited timeframe prescribed under the Act, we applied to the Supreme Court of New South Wales to obtain orders granting an extension to the convening period.’
A report will be sent to creditors one-week prior to the meeting, on September 20. ‘Contained within this report will be a fulsome analysis of the particulars contained within the proposal as well as the outcome of our investigations,’ wrote Mr O’Reilly.
For further background on the PixiFoto closure, including extensive and sometimes passionate comment from ex-employees and others, click here.
Any news of the report being sent out on this? The UK facebook pages have been rather quiet since this mess blew up.
There was a report last night on Chanel 9 Today tonite, or whatever the crappy show is after the news about a woman who selected a professional photographer to do a series of family shots for $800 and was not happy. It sounded to me like a lack of comminciation between client and photographer. The photographer was named as Pixifoto, and then after the whole article had gone to air the announcer advised that they would not a refund as the company had gone under. seemed a pointless article really, considering she was never going to get her money back in the first place.