EY to manage administration of three Sargon companies
Having been pushed into external administration by its creditors, Australian financial services firm Sargon has appointed EY to manage the administration of three of its subsidiaries in a bid to safeguard economic value.
Sargon was thrown into administrations by a Chinese creditor, following an announcement from the company that one of its creditors had also appointed McGrathNicol as administrator. The creditor in question was Chinese state-owned insurance company Taiping Trustees.
At the time of the announcement, Sargon assured that none of the firm’s subsidiaries were in administration. However, a few weeks down the line, this has now changed – sliding confidence and performance have incited the firm’s management to bring restructuring experts from Big Four accounting and advisory firm EY on board to “protect its interests”.
A spokesperson of EY confirmed to news outlet Financial Standard: “Stewart McCallum and Adam Nikitins of EY were appointed Joint and Several Voluntary Administrations over selected subsidiary holding companies within the Sargon Group structure to preserve value of the regulated entities within the group. There will be no further comment at this time.”
McCallum is a partner and restructuring, turnaround and insolvency professional at EY, based in Melbourne. He has over two decades of experience in the advisory sector, including more than a decade at fellow Big Four accounting and advisory firm PwC.
Nitkins is a Partner in at EY’s Transaction Advisory Services division. He is EY’s Oceania Restructuring Leader, and has been at the professional services firm for more than two decades.
Regulatory documents show that the duo are jointly managing the administration for the three companies Sargon Superannuation Holdings, Sargon Services and Sargon CT Holdings.
Each company manages a different aspect of Sargon’s broader function, aimed at supporting clients with developing the technology and infrastructure for their trustee services, fund operations and custodial services. The firm is a major player in the increasingly competitive financial services market across Australia, and is also particularly active in the New Zealand and Hong Kong markets.
Sargon was founded by entrepreneur Phil Kingston, and has grown rapidly into a thriving fintech. At its peak, the Melbourne-based company held more than $55 billion in assets under trusteeship and supervision. But when the news broke that McGrathNicol was named receivers for the holding, the company plunged into trouble, and has since been facing increasingly stormy waters.
