FSG Australia, A Complex Liquidation

When the Board of FSG Australia, a not-for-profit charity, discovered they were insolvent and unable to continue providing critical services to those in need, they appointed FTI Consulting’s John Park and Joanne Dunn as Voluntary Administrators, and subsequent Liquidators of the Company.

FSG Australia was providing a range of services in the areas of disability, mental health, aged care, family and children’s services, and all whilst employing 896 staff. It also operated social initiatives including cafés, retail and co-working spaces, FSG Travel, a plant nursery and indoor rock-climbing gym. It was one of Queensland’s largest community organisations servicing around 2,500 people per month, so their collapse had far-reaching and imminent consequences for most stakeholders adding to the complexity of the engagement.

Our Role

Our Corporate Finance team took control of the company operations on 30 June 2018 and began investigations into the affairs of the company. Our efforts revealed the failure was primarily due to the inability of the business to adapt to changes in the funding model brought about by the commencement of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. In addition, FSG Australia were running non-funded and under-funded programs. Unfortunately, the continued losses caused excessive strain on the company’s working capital, resulting in the company’s ultimate demise. As the prospect of obtaining external funding was no longer an option, FTI Consulting recommended FSG Australia be wound up. As a result of the liquidation, employees were afforded access to the Commonwealth Government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee Scheme to claim entitlements owed to them. There were three time-critical and complex challenges at the time of our appointment.