History. 4 of 5: creditors voted after the legal deadline at Mosaic Brands 2024 (246 days), Dick Smith 2016 (203), Hastie Group 2012 (248) and ABC Learning 2008 (573); on time only at Forge Group 2014 (day 35).
Hunch. On 5 November the lender Hilco said it would keep David Jones trading while new owners are found, and with 10 December in the middle of the Christmas rush, a creditors' decision by then would need a buyer that nobody has named.
The delay market resolves YES if by 23:59 Sydney time on 10 December 2026 the David Jones creditors have not voted to accept a deal, end the administration or close the company, because a court gave more time, the meeting was put off or no meeting was held. It resolves on the administrators' McGrathNicol page, where the type of process changes after the vote, confirmed by ABC News and The Guardian, which decide alone if the page does not change.
We looked for cases where the board of a big Australian company, with 1,000 staff or more, handed it to administrators while its main lender sent in receivers to run the business. We found five such collapses from 2008 to 2024. Two of them were shop chains. (ABC News; ABC News; ABC News; ABC News; ABC News)