Nicholas Bolton’s investment company slapped with winding up order amid ATO dispute

The investment company at the centre of the BrisConnections debacle two years ago has been slapped with a winding up order amid a dispute with the Tax Office over an unpaid bill.

Australian Style Investments, run by controversial young Melbourne entrepreneur Nicholas Bolton, rose to national prominence by making more than $4 million by taking a significant stake in troubled toll road group BrisConnections in 2009.

ASIC documents show an application to wind up Melbourne-based Australian Style Investments was made on September 5.

According to The Age, the amount in question is $654,000 and Bolton plans to fight on.

“I do not believe that there is any amount due or payable to the ATO, and ASI is in the process of making an application of have the dispute determined,” he told the paper.

Bolton was contacted for comment this morning, but did not respond before publication.

This is the second wind-up application Australian Style Investments has faced in the last two years.

ASIC records show a wind-up application was made against the company in March 2009 and dismissed in June of that year.

Bolton shot to prominence two years ago when he became the largest shareholder in BrisConnections in early 2009 after amassing a 19.7% stake for less than $100,000. But each unit holder then was required to pay a $2-per-share installment to BrisConnections over the following 12 months, meaning Bolton faced a debt of $154 million on his shares.

Bolton then called an extraordinary general meeting of the company in the hope of winding up the company and getting out of paying the installments.

But before the meeting in April, Bolton sold the voting rights to his shares to Leighton Holdings, the major contractor working on the road, for $4.5 million. Leighton then voted Bolton’s shares against the wind-up resolution and Bolton offloaded his shares to a family friend under a prearranged option deal.

In February, the Supreme Court of Victoria appointed a liquidator to another company in Bolton’s group, Australian Style Pty Ltd.

The appointment followed a decision by the Australian Domain Name Administrator to strip the company of its license after alleged security breaches.