High-profile economic consultancy firm Concept Economics collapses

Concept Economics, the consultancy firm run by prominent economist and former Telstra advisor Henry Ergas, has collapsed into administration.

The collapse of the Sydney-base firm, which was first revealed by Crikey, occurred on 3 September, when the directors put the business into the hands of Michael Jones of insolvency firm Jones Partners. According to reports, around 20 staff have lost their jobs.

However, Michael Jones refused to comment on the administration, saying only that there were very few external creditors and he wishes to carefully manage relationships with the firm’s clients.

“We’ve got some very delicate issues we’re dealing with.”

One of Concept’s most recent jobs involved a report into the viability of the National Broadband Network.

Just days before its collapse, Concept released a cost-benefit analysis showing that the NBN’s costs might outweigh its benefits by a factor of between $14 and $20 billion.

According to report in telecommunications industry publication CommsDay, the Concept report suggested that the NBN should not proceed if its total costs exceed between $10 billion and $17 billion and forecast that consumers would pay $133 a month in metro areas and $380 a month in non-metro areas.