Construction giant Probuild, the builder of major hotels, apartments, offices and skyscrapers around the nation, is expected to enter administration.
A board meeting of the mega-builder, which built the Melbourne Convention Centre, the new headquarters of Victoria Police and the glass wave of “The Ribbon” on Sydney’s Darling Harbour, is expected to agree to either radically restructure the company or go into administration.
Workers at projects in Sydney and Melbourne have told the ABC they have been stood down, told to pack up, collect their tools and leave the sites.
The company has about 500 staff. However, there would be thousands more who work as sub-contractors, plying a specific specialty and then moving on to the next project.
A representative of the company said it would issue a statement on Thursday morning and would not answer further questions.
Construction industry sources have raised questions about the future of the company for some months, with key projects including West Side Place in Melbourne said to be far behind schedule.
Despite a boom in construction since the pandemic, success is not guaranteed, even for the biggest of builders.
Grocon Group constructed some of the tallest buildings in Australia before it went under in 2020, blaming a single project for sinking the decades-old company.
