Altech owes millions to creditors

A report from the first creditors meeting of distributor Altech Computers has revealed debts as high as $9 million – or more.

According to Altech's Report as to Affairs (RATA), Westpac is claiming a debt of more than $6 million across Australia and New Zealand.

Unsecured creditors include PC components manufacturer Corsair ($393,000) and hard disk vendor HGST ($193,000).

It is unclear whether these ledger amounts are final. For instance, the RATA shows IP surveillance vendor Vivotek is owed $70,000, but the creditor is claiming a debt of $49,000.

Fellow distributors also look to be exposed, with the RATA listing debts to Ingram Micro ($47,000), Dicker Data ($30,000), Avnet for ($22,000) and Bluechip Infotech ($13,000).

Altech fell into voluntary administration in December citing cashflow problems. Cashflow was down to $319,000 at the end of the 2014 financial year, the most recent publicly available numbers from corporate regulator ASIC.

Headcount fell from 180 in June 2013 to 108 staff across Altech's five Australian warehouses as of 30 June 2014. A series of redundancies brought the total headcount headcount down to just 17 as of December, with eight people since let go by the administrators.

Revenue fell by $26 million to $128 million in the 2014 financial year. Altech recorded a loss of $776,000 for 2014, following a $1.1 million loss the previous year.

Altech also faced closures of its Brisbane and Melbourne in October and were relocated to a new Sydney warehouse in Olympic Park. A month later, Adelaide operations were also shut down. The company still has operations in Perth, as well as New Zealand which is also in administration.

Administrator Daniel Walley told CRN that negotiations of a possible acquisition are still ongoing, with the fate of the company yet to be determined.