Minutes:
Although we briefed the leaders of the two Opposition parties I thought it would be useful if I outlined for Members today some facts concerning Dawnus.
Much has been said over the last few weeks over the demise of Dawnus, our construction partner, building amongst other things the new Peach Place Regeneration. I wanted to correct a number of comments that have been published recently so that Members and residents can be reassured that the regeneration will continue as planned.
Dawnus won the regeneration tender in November 2016 following a vigorous tender process. At that time we carried out due diligence and credit checks which showed Dawnus either to have an A- or a B+ credit rating. Couple this with our history of working with Dawnus on other projects in the past where they delivered a quality product at a reasonable price, we felt we had the ideal partner. However, when Corillian went into administration in January this year, the Board overseeing the regeneration met the following day. At the time we wanted to prepare for the worst but in the expectation that Dawnus was still rated B+ by the two credit reference agencies that we checked on that day. When we met to review the contract every two weeks thereafter we also found that we had regular reviews with our advisers Wilson Bowden, who advised us from day one. It was only in later February that we were alerted by Dawnus themselves that they had incurred problems with an overseas contract and that a customer had gone into administration, which had seen them face liquidity problems. At all times they were upfront with us and brought it back on a weekly basis. After discussion with our advisers Wilson Bowden, and only being a matter of weeks away from completion of the site, we prepared for the worst but still hoped that the refinancing they were undertaking would be agreed.
Ten days ago, being alerted that the company was likely to go into administration the following day our AD Bernie Pich put in place our contingency plans which served notice on Dawnus to cancel the contract and to take back the site. This was completed within a few hours which I am told is a record in the world of construction as it usually takes several days. The team here at WBC have retained a temporary contractor onsite who has the responsibility for security whilst we undertake an independent inspection to ascertain what has and what has not been completed. It is entirely likely that this will take several weeks but as most of the contractors on site are sub-contractors we hope to be able to retain the majority. The key sub-contractors were back on site within 48 hours. The priority now is to get the commercial units completed as soon as possible so that new retailers can open and serve our residents. Whilst there will be an inevitable delay we sincerely hope that this will be kept to a minimum.