Australia's corporate regulator opens formal probe into collapsed builder Bathla, which owes A$3.4 billion

ASIC commissioner Simone Constant confirmed the probe, but the regulator has not said which conduct it is examining, ABC News reported. An ASIC inquiry is usually a fact-finding step, while a formal investigation means it is examining possible breaches of the law that could lead to enforcement action, Reuters noted. Constant told Reuters the group has about 500 special-purpose vehicles, almost twice its number of employees, and more than 40 lenders.

Construction has stopped across the group. Court documents show 219 projects were underway when administrators were appointed, including 45 sites under construction, Reuters reported. ABC counts about 2,000 homes being built and 13,000 more planned. Administrators Teneo are selling undeveloped land and other assets, private lenders are moving to take properties pledged as security, and the NSW Supreme Court has given the administrators until September 2027 to hold the second creditors' meeting.

ASIC is also questioning the private lenders that funded Bathla but has not opened a formal case against them. On Monday it ordered two Angas Securities funds, on an interim basis, to stop taking new money over disclosure concerns, one of them tied to its exposure to Bathla. The regulator looked at the developer once before, in 2011, over alleged unconscionable lending; co-founder Bhart Bhushan and Universal Property Group, the group's main entity, agreed then to a compensation scheme for homebuyers.