Financial Accounting Report: HIH, Stellar, ABA Company Collapses

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the collapse of three Australian companies: HIH Insurance, Stellar Homes, and Aluminium Boats Australia. It examines the events leading to their liquidations, including risky acquisitions, natural disasters, and economic downturns. The report delves into the role of liabilities and the implications of the APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. Furthermore, it explores corporate governance issues and the different types of liquidation processes, specifically focusing on voluntary and court-ordered liquidations. The study highlights the financial challenges faced by these companies and the impact of their failures on various stakeholders, providing valuable insights into financial accounting and corporate governance practices.

Running head: FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Financial Accounting
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Executive Summary
This report takes an attempt to analysis as well as evaluate the reasons and events that
contributed towards the collapse of three Australian companies; they are HIH Insurance,
Stellar House and Aluminium Boats Australia. This report also considers the impact of
increasing liabilities on the liquidation of these three companies. After that, this report
focuses on the code of ethics and corporate governance issues of these three companies.

2FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Background of Three Companies...............................................................................................3
HIH Insurance........................................................................................................................3
Stellar Homes.........................................................................................................................3
Aluminium Boats Australia....................................................................................................3
Events that Led Up to the Liquidation.......................................................................................3
HIH Insurance........................................................................................................................3
Stellar Homes.........................................................................................................................4
Aluminium Boats Australia....................................................................................................4
APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants...........................................................4
Issues related to Corporate Governance.....................................................................................5
Liquidation Type........................................................................................................................5
Role Played by Liabilities..........................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

3FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Introduction
The collapse of large business organizations has become a common issue over the
years in the presence of different kinds of reasons. Corporate collapses are also called as the
process of business liquidation or the winding up of the businesses (Coad, 2014). Business
liquidation involves different kinds of processes that the businesses are needed to go through
and it is the responsibility of the liquidators to conduct the whole liquidation process. Under
the liquidation process, it is needed to identify the assets and liabilities of the companies with
the aim to pay off the creditors and other lenders of the businesses. This report takes into
consideration investigating the reasons behind the collapse of three famous Australian
companies; they are HIH Insurance, Stellar House and Aluminium Boats Australia. In
addition, this report also analyses the ethical and corporate governance related reasons of
these collapses.
Background of Three Companies
HIH Insurance
HIH Insurance used to provide various insurance services to the people of Australia.
The company commenced their business operations in the year of 1968 and it hold the place
of Australia’s second largest insurance provider before its liquidation. The process of
liquidation of the company started on March 15, 2001. The insurance firm majorly expanded
their business between the years 1997 and 1998. It was the largest corporate collapse as well
as liquidation in Australian history and it is believed that a total loss of AUD5.3 billion was
responsible for the collapse of HIH Insurance (hih.com.au, 2019).
Stellar Homes
Stellar Homes can be considered as another major company and the company was
involved in the business of developing retail estates for their customers. It needs to be
mentioned that Stellar Homes has made certain major investments in the resident and real
estate industry as a part of their business operations. In addition, the company was famous for
their sustainable business activities as they conduct their business by taking into account the
negative effects of their business on the environment and society. Stellar Homes was
renowned for maintaining their quality standards in their real estate related projects
(stellarhomes.ca, 2019).
Aluminium Boats Australia
Aluminium Boats Australia, commonly known as ABA, was regarded as one of the
major multi-disciplinary shipyard and the business operation of the company was to provide
new construction, support services, repair services, maintenance services, technical advice
and others. The company was established in the year of 1999. The speciality of ABA could
be seen to deliver high performance military, luxury as well as commercial vessels while
implementing advanced technology in them. At the same time, the company was also
responsible for delivering certain complete solution to some of their largest customers all
over the country (aba-global.com, 2019).
Events that Led Up to the Liquidation
HIH Insurance
There are certain events that were hugely responsible for the liquidation of HIH
Insurance. The company decided to acquire FAI Insurance and invested huge amount of fund
for this acquisition which was considered as majorly risky for the business model of HIH
Insurance. Moreover, HIH Insurance also took the decision to make investments in the
business to finance films and there was a loss of more than millions of dollars due to this

4FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
wrong business decision (treasury.gov.au, 2019). Another major event responsible for the
collapse of HIH Insurance was the natural disaster in Florida in the presence of the fact that
the company had to paid huge insurance compensation for this disaster that led to huge
business loss for the firm. Introduction of incorrect as well as irrelevant accounting standards
for the employees’ remuneration in California was another major reason for the destruction of
HIH Insurance as the company had to face huge loss because of the failure of this accounting
standard. It needs to be mentioned that HIH Insurance had to incur a total loss of $800
million in a time span of six months as a result of several incorrect business decisions and the
combination of these decisions led to the liquidation of HIH Insurance (aph.gov.au, 2019).
Stellar Homes
In the recent years, Australia has another major corporate collapse when one of the
country’s major company, Stellar Homes, had to face liquidation that started on 20 October,
2014. The administrators responsible to conduct the liquidation process of Stellar Homes
were IW Burford and PI Macks from Macks Advisory (insolvencynotices.asic.gov.au, 2019).
As per the report of these two administrators, there was major decreases in the sales of Stellar
Homes that created certain major issues related to the cash flows. This was the prime reason
for Stellar Homes collapse. In the past ten years, Stellar Homes was responsible for the
construction of more than 500 houses in Adelaide. It can be found from the administrators’
report that the declining economic condition of South Australia was majorly responsible for
the decrease in the sales of Stellar Homes and the cash flow related issues. Due to the
unpredicted liquidation, Stellar Homes was not able in completing many of their housing
projects in Adelaide. It is mentioned in the report of the administrators that 36 houses were in
different states of work-in-progress at the time of the company’s liquidation (news.com.au,
2019). The administrators have done the necessary assessments of the loss of the customers
with the aim to compensate them from the company’s fund.
Aluminium Boats Australia
There was another major case of voluntary liquidation of an Australian company that
is ABA due to the loss of one major navy vessel and the process of winding up the business
commenced on 4 November, 2014. The administrators responsible for conducting the
liquidation process of ABA were John Park and Anne Trenfield from FTI Consulting
(insolvencynotices.asic.gov.au, 2019). It can be found from the report of the administrators
that company lost HMAS Bubdaberg due to massive fire and it was a patrol boat of the Royal
Australian Navy. It was considered as the major reason for the collapse of ABA as it created
many negative impact on the business of the firm. The unexpected fire contributed towards
the loss of $45 million; at the same time, they also lost the contract from Royal Australian
Navy for providing the maintenance related services. Due to this, ABA lost a major source of
revenue for their business. Apart from this, the company had to lay off their employee base
due to this event. All these reasons together were responsible for the liquidation of the
business operation of ABA (couriermail.com.au, 2019).
APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants
APES 110: APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants is a crucial
document as it provides the accounting professionals with the necessary ethical codes that
need to be adhere to while providing the professional services. The presence of five code of
ethics can be seen under this and they are discussed below:
Integrity: As per this code of ethics, it is required for the professionals to be honest as well as
straightforward in all the business relations to avoid ethical misconduct (apesb.org.au, 2019).

5FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Objectivity: As per this code of ethics, there is not any scope for the professionals to be bias
and influenced in the professional decisions; and there must not any conflict of interest while
providing the professional services (apesb.org.au, 2019).
Professional Competence and Due Care: According to this code of ethics, it is needed for
the professionals to ensure possessing the required skills, knowledge and experience while
providing the professional services to the clients (apesb.org.au, 2019).
Confidentiality: As per this code of ethics, the accounting professionals are banned from not
to share or disclose the confidential business material of the client acquired while providing
the professional services in the absence of proper approval (apesb.org.au, 2019).
Professional Behaviour: As per this code of ethics, it is needed for the professionals to
ensure the adherence to the necessary rule, regulations and standards so that any kind of
ethical misconduct can be avoided (apesb.org.au, 2019).
These are the five major code of ethics as per APES 110 that the professionals are
needed to maintain in their professions.
Issues related to Corporate Governance
Some corporate governance related issues were there in the collapse of HIH
Insurance. While acquiring the business of FAI Insurance, the senior management of HIH
Insurance did not take the needed permission from the Board of Directors and it indicates
towards the ineffective corporate governance in the company. After that, lack of effective
corporate governance can be seen in the poor decision of the firm to invest in the films which
was a loss making business (Tricker and Tricker, 2015). Apart from this, the senior
management of HIH Insurance was involved in not maintaining the ethical business practices
as well as the needed due diligence and it can be considered as the lack of proper corporate
governance mechanism. After that, the management of HIH Insurance was responsible for
issuing inappropriate prospectus for their business that included omission of the material facts
along with profit overstatement. However, in case of Stellar Homes and ABA, there was not
any significant issues related to corporate governance that contributed towards the collapse of
these two companies as the main reason for the liquidation were unexpected fire and decrease
in sales due to economic downturn (Tricker and Tricker, 2015).
Liquidation Type
Voluntary liquidation occurred for the cases of Stellar Homes and ABA and both the
companies were liquidated as per the paragraph 446A(1)(a) special resolution under s491.
According to the regulation of voluntary liquidation, it is needed for the directors of the
companies to leave sufficient funds at the time of liquidation. This fund is used for paying off
the creditor while the rest needs to be transferred to the directors. Both of these two
companies have followed these rules (Mbogo and Waweru, 2014).
However, the scenario is different for HIH Insurance as the company was liquidated
in accordance with the order of the court on 15 March, 2001 after the analysis of the
company’s financial statements by KPMG. For this reason, the type of liquidation of HIH
Insurance is the court liquidation (DeTienne and Wennberg, 2013).
Role Played by Liabilities
There are instances where there were liquidation of the companies due to the
increased amount of liabilities. It can be noticed from the case of HIH Insurance that there
was development of large amount of liabilities along with debts because the business of HIH
Insurance was highly dependent on loans and thus, it was leveraged in the presence of term

6FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
debts from banks and other financial institutes. Moreover, the total debt position of the
company increased while acquiring the business of FAI Insurance for $300 million when
$100 million was the actual value of the deal. At the same time, role of increased liability can
also be seen in Stellar Homes as the company was not able to complete the home projects
worth $1.5 million. The administrators of Stellar Homes mentioned that amount of secured
loans and insecure loans for Stellar Homes are $3.4 million and $1.5 million respectively.
However, liabilities did not have any impact on the collapse of ABA due to the fact that the
company was liquidated due to fire (Moerman and van der Laan, 2015).
Conclusion
The above discussion helps in concluding the fact that there were certain major
reasons or events that were majorly accountable for the collapse of these three companies.
Ineffective business decisions were major reasons for the collapse of HIH Insurance as the
company had to incur huge loss as well as liabilities due to these decisions. For ABA,
unexpected fire led to business loss and liquidation of the company. Decrease in sales and
issues in cash flows due to economic downturn was the reason for the collapse of Stellar
Homes. The above discussion also sheds light on the five code of ethics of APES 110 that the
professionals are needed to maintain. As per the above discussion, both ABA and Stella
Homes were liquidated voluntarily while HIH Insurance liquidated as per the order of the
court. It can also be seen from the above discussion that increasing amount of liability was a
major reason for the collapse of HIH Insurance and Stellar Homes.

7FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
References
Aluminium Boats Australia | Shipbuilders Brisbane, Australia. 2018. Aluminium Boats
Australia | Shipbuilders Brisbane, Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.aba-
global.com/ [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Apesb.org.au. 2018. APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. [online]
Available at: https://www.apesb.org.au/uploads/standards/apesb_standards/standard1.pdf
[Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Aph.gov.au. 2019. HIH Insurance Group collapse – Parliament of Australia . [online]
Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/
Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/hihinsurance [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Coad, A., 2014. Death is not a success: Reflections on business exit. International Small
Business Journal, 32(7), pp.721-732.
Couriermail.com.au. 2014. Fire helps sink Brisbane boat builder. [online] Available at:
https://www.couriermail.com.au/business/hmas-bundaberg-fire-blamed-for-brisbanebased-
aluminium-boats-australia-going-into-voluntary-administration/news-story/
ebe81d71762d198f65b28d674c4c463b [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
DeTienne, D.R. and Wennberg, K., 2013. Small business exit: Review of past research,
theoretical considerations and suggestions for future research. Forthcoming chapter in" Small
businesses in a global economy: Creating and managing successful organizations"(edited by
S. Newbert). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Group, 2. 2019. 2. The rise and fall of HIH Insurance Group. [online] Treasury.gov.au.
Available at: https://treasury.gov.au/publication/economic-roundup-issue-1-2015/economic-
roundup-issue-1/the-hih-claims-support-scheme/2-the-rise-and-fall-of-hih-insurance-group/
[Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Hih.com.au. 2019. HIH Insurance. [online] Available at: http://www.hih.com.au/background
[Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Insolvencynotices.asic.gov.au. (2019). Aluminium Boats Australia Pty Ltd 089 008 668 |
Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation | Appointment | QLD | Published : 12/12/2014 | ASIC
Notice Details . [online] Available at: https://insolvencynotices.asic.gov.au/browsesearch-
notices/notice-details/Aluminium-Boats-Australia-Pty-Ltd-089008668/8ea52211-e17d-43f1-
81cd-cef8db0841c9 [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Insolvencynotices.asic.gov.au. 2018. STELLAR HOMES PTY LTD 107 791 453 | Creditors'
Voluntary Liquidation | Appointment | | Published : 12/03/2015 | ASIC Notice Details .
[online] Available at: https://insolvencynotices.asic.gov.au/browsesearch-notices/notice-
details/STELLAR-HOMES-PTY-LTD-107791453/00b614e4-780a-4df8-b958-f3f48e4ee9f1
[Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Mbogo, J. and Waweru, G., 2014. Corporate Turn Around Strategies By Financially
Distressed Companies Quoted At The Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Moerman, L.C. and van der Laan, S.L., 2015. Silencing the noise: Asbestos liabilities,
accounting and strategic bankruptcy. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 27, pp.118-128.
NewsComAu. 2014. Stellar Homes crashes down to earth. [online] Available at:
https://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/custom-home-builder-stellar-homes-has-

8FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
gone-into-administration/news-story/a8903cbc8762cae1a67d6f43e4d27fa8 [Accessed 22
Dec. 2018].
Stellarhomes.ca. 2018. Stellar Homes - General Contractors, Residential Home Builder,
Edmonton, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Acreage, High-End Luxury Homes. [online]
Available at: https://www.stellarhomes.ca/ [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Tricker, R.B. and Tricker, R.I., 2015. Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and
practices. Oxford University Press, USA.