asx: multiplex fails wembley. cardiff for final., page-19

why the poms hate multiplex. How will this mob ever get another contract in the UK???
I hear there is another big problem in Queensland. We'll see.

FA facing cutbacks if £40m Wembley payment is missed
By Mihir Bose
(Filed: 23/02/2006)



In pics: Wembley's history
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The Football Association must find £40 million by September to start paying back interest and some of the capital they borrowed to fund the £757 million cost of the new Wembley.

The principal financial facts are that the FA paid £150 million from their own resources and received £120 million from the Lottery, while £433 million was borrowed by their subsidiary, Wembley National Stadium Limited, from a German bank. The business plan specifies, however, that if the payment schedules are not met the bank could call the loans back.

Indeed, WNSL have no strategy beyond next month. In the last accounts they filed, for Dec 31, 2004, they said: "The total budget for the project, i.e. from June 1997 to operational completion in March 2006, is £757 million."

One result of Tuesday's announcement by the FA that the Cup final, on May 13, was being moved from Wembley because the stadium might not be ready in time is that WNSL will be furiously preparing new budgets. People who had booked dinners in the period leading up to this summer's World Cup were yesterday informed that no events would be booked in the function rooms until September.

Insiders say the FA are also being particularly optimistic in pinning hopes on compensation for the delay from Multiplex. The Australian builders are liable to pay £125,000 a day from Jan 31, but this figure is capped at £14 million - £26 million short of the FA's first payment to the banks. If Wembley is not ready by September this will be a big shortfall that could mean the FA have to cut back in other areas.

Nor can the FA be certain that Multiplex will give them a cheque for £14 million, along with the keys to the new Wembley. Yesterday, before Multiplex published their half-yearly results, their spokesman told Australian investors that, while the clock on compensation was running, the payments had been "subject to extensions and variations".

This means Multiplex will fight for every penny of the £14 million. They can point to changes imposed by WNSL and the FA bringing forward the FA Cup final by a week from May 20 to help England with their World Cup preparations.

One insider told me: "Any change WNSL may have made will be used by Multiplex to argue that this reduces their compensation. The showers for the players in the changing rooms are said to be too close together, so a shower for 12 players could cause a flood. Now if WNSL want to change it, Multiplex will say they that constructed according to the specifications."

A source close to the project discloses that WNSL will soon face another tricky situation. "Multiplex are due £326.5 million. The FA have paid much of it but you do not pay up the entire sum and then demand money back as compensation. So what happens when WNSL stop paying Multiplex? Will they ask their 3,500 workers on the site to down their tools and walk away?"

Relations between WNSL and Multiplex are not the best, as demonstrated by the way the construction of the pedestrian walkway to the stadium became a major dispute.

The walkway goes over land owned by Quintain Estates, who own all the land around the stadium and are converting the area into something resembling the West End. Multiplex said they were ready to construct it in September 2005, but, when Quintain asked for plans and structural measurements, Multiplex said that was not in their contract. It was November before the matter was settled, and Quintain had to pay £33,000 to get the plans they needed.

Wembley have also learnt that they did not allow for enough car parks. The old Wembley had 5,000 car parking spaces, the new one has 2,900, but this could reduce further as each coach alone takes up 3½ spaces.

The problems have been such that, two weeks ago, the London Development Agency, who have invested £100 million in the redevelopment, flew in Ed Obiala - who constructed Stadium Australia - to make an assessment of when Wembley might finally be ready.