BrisConnections demands payment from unit holders

BrisConnections slapped 45 companies - mostly private superannuation funds - with statutory demands for payment on June 2, and filed statements of claim against about 90 unit holders on June 9 after they did not respond to letters of demand to pay the outstanding instalments, sent on May 26.

The 135 people and companies can choose either to pay what they owe, or to apply to have the statutory demand or statement of claim against them set aside by the court.

Unless this happens, BrisConnections will probably move to wind up the companies or ask the court to order the individuals to pay.

A total of 150 unit holders paid the second instalment when it was due at the end of April.

Sydney commodities trader Clive Carroll's private investment company, Eclectic Investments, is one of the 45 companies facing a winding-up order in the Queensland Supreme Court.

The 59-year-old owes $250,000 in instalments for 250,000 units he bought last year.

His company is one of 40 companies and individuals being pursued through the Queensland Supreme Court and the Brisbane District Court.

The remainder are being sued in courts in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

BrisConnections spokesman Patrick Southam said his company had been obliged to use its best endeavours to recover the money as part of the underwriting agreement with Deutsche Bank and Macquarie Group.

"They bought them, they haven't paid and we have a legal obligation to pursue them," Mr Southam told BusinessDay.

"All along in this process we have encouraged defaulting unit holders to make payments. If they paid they would get their units.

"We also have an obligation to these 150 unit holders who have paid to pursue this."

The underwriters had to fill a $278 million shortfall in the $390 million instalment. Many unit holders who bought in when the first instalment crashed from $1 to 0.1 are exposed to liabilities thousand of times their original investment.

The 27-year-old IT entrepreneur Nicholas Bolton, who called a unit holder meeting to have BrisConnections wound up before selling off his voting rights to the builder of the road, Leighton, for $4.5 million, refused to comment.