Five Companies Down, One Big Warning for Contractors

What a Waikato collapse reveals about the hidden risks of working with related companies.

What happens to your money when a contractor you rely on goes under? Five linked Waikato liquidations reveal how quickly the fallout can reach subcontractors, suppliers and projects, and what you can do to reduce your exposure.

Team ConInnova

Sep 25, 2026

Share via:

Introduction

On 2 March, five related Waikato companies went into liquidation on the same day. Hamilton Asphalts, Page Earthworks, Page Plant & Equipment, RC Equipment, and Clear Property & Projects were all placed into the hands of liquidators Steven Khov and Kieran Jones, with the notice published in the New Zealand Gazette. Creditors had until 28 March to lodge their claims.

Hamilton Asphalts had been a fixture of the Waikato roading and civil scene for decades, built up from a small pothole repair business into one of the region's busier earthworks and asphalt operators. When a business like that goes down, it's rarely just one company that gets swept up in it. That's the part worth understanding, whether you've ever worked with these particular businesses or not.

What actually happened

The liquidation notice covers five separate legal entities appointed by shareholder resolution on the same day. That's the detail that matters most here. Businesses in civil contracting and earthworks often aren't run as a single company. They're structured as a group, sometimes with an operating company that does the actual contracting work, a separate company that owns the plant and equipment, and another that holds property or leases premises back to the group.

When one part of that structure runs into trouble, whether it's cash flow, a bad debt, or a project that went wrong, it can be hard to contain the fallout to just that one entity. Loans between the companies, shared directors, cross guarantees, and interlinked cash flow all mean trouble in one part of the group tends to become trouble for the whole group.

Why the structure matters more than the name on the truck

If you've ever subcontracted to, leased plant from, or been a supplier to a civil contractor, you've probably dealt with more than one company under the same trading name without necessarily realizing it. That's common practice and not inherently a red flag. But it does change what actually happens if things go wrong.

Say the operating company holds the contracts and owes you money for work done. If the plant and equipment sits in a separate company, that equipment isn't necessarily available to satisfy debts owed by the operating company. If a property company owns the yard or the depot, rent arrangements between group companies can also complicate what's actually available to creditors once liquidators start untangling who owes what to whom.

This is exactly why liquidations involving multiple related companies, like this one, tend to take longer to resolve and often produce lower returns for unsecured creditors than a straightforward single company failure. The money and assets are spread across a structure, not sitting in one place.

The exposure spreads further than you'd think

For a builder or subcontractor who's dealt with a business like this, the risk shows up in a few specific ways. If you're an unsecured creditor waiting on payment for completed work, you're generally near the back of the queue behind secured lenders and preferential creditors like employees and Inland Revenue. If you've paid a deposit or progress payment for plant hire or materials that never got delivered, recovering that money depends entirely on what's actually left once the liquidators have worked through the group's finances. And if you were relying on hired plant or equipment from one of the companies involved, that equipment can be tied up in the liquidation process for months while ownership and any registered securities over it get sorted out.

This kind of collapse also tends to have a wider ripple effect. Smaller subcontractors, suppliers, and even other trades working on the same sites can find themselves out of pocket or waiting on delayed projects, even if they never had a direct commercial relationship with the failed business.

This isn't a one off

Multiple related company liquidations aren't unique to this case. Construction sector liquidations have been running at a high rate through the recent downturn, with reports of 22 construction firms going into liquidation in a single week earlier this year. When margins are tight across the sector, group structures that worked fine in good times can come under real pressure, and one weak link in a related group of companies can pull the rest down with it.

What to actually do about it

Know exactly which entity you're contracting with. Check the actual company name and number on your contract, not just the trading name on the signage or the invoice.
Search the Companies Office and PPSR before relying heavily on one contractor. A quick search shows you related companies, any existing charges over assets, and whether a business has a pattern of related-party lending that could leave it exposed.
Keep retentions genuinely separate, not just on paper. If you're the one holding retentions owed to subcontractors, make sure they're actually ring fenced. If you're the one owed retentions, understand where they sit if the head contractor group runs into trouble.
Watch for early warning signs across a whole group, not just one company. Slow payment, requests to invoice a different related entity, or unusual changes to who you're contracting with can be signs of wider group stress.
Diversify who you rely on for critical plant or materials. If one supplier or subcontractor group makes up a large share of your project's plant or materials, a single failure can stall your whole job, not just cost you money.

Bottom line

Five companies going into liquidation on the same day isn't a coincidence, it's how interconnected group structures actually work when one part of the business comes under pressure. For builders and subbies, the lesson isn't to avoid working with group structured contractors altogether, most of the industry is set up this way. It's to understand which entity you're actually dealing with, where your money sits if things go wrong, and to treat a wobble in one part of a group as a signal to pay closer attention to the rest of it.

References

New Zealand Gazette, "HAMILTON ASPHALTS LIMITED, PAGE EARTHWORKS LIMITED, PAGE PLANT & EQUIPMENT LIMITED, RC EQUIPMENT LIMITED and CLEAR PROPERTY & PROJECTS LIMITED (all in liquidation)" (3 March 2026) — https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2026-al1191
Debtor Insight, "Hamilton Asphalts Limited, Page Earthworks Limited" liquidation notice (3 March 2026) — https://www.debtorinsight.co.nz/notice/2026-al1191
The Post, "Hamilton Asphalts goes into liquidation, first report shows millions owed to creditors" — https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360998921/hamilton-asphalt-goes-liquidation-first-report-shows-millions-owed-creditors
The Waikato Times, "Hamilton Asphalts goes into liquidation, first report shows millions owed to creditors" — https://www.waikatotimes.co.nz/nz-news/360998921/hamilton-asphalt-goes-liquidation-first-report-shows-millions-owed-creditors
The Post, "One week, 22 construction firm liquidations" (27 January 2026) — https://www.thepost.co.nz/business/360937874/one-week-22-construction-firm-liquidations
Business Central, feature on Hamilton Asphalts (July 2021, background on company history) — https://digitalpublications.online/waterfordpress/business-central-july-21/76/