Big Un
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Big Un Limited (ASX: BIG) was an Australian video-technology company founded in 2013 that sold promotional 'TV show' packages to small businesses - for $12,000, customers got a professionally produced TV-style video package, funded through deferred-payment financing via a $20 million arrangement with Sydney financier First Class Capital (product 'Finstro'). It was one of the top-performing shares on the ASX in 2017, worth as much as $700 million, and claimed cash revenue up 429% year-on-year in 2017. Then the wheels came off: shares were suspended in February 2018 after its secretive funding arrangement was exposed, it was delisted from the ASX in August 2018, and liquidated in 2019 after internal audits revealed an unsustainable loss-making operation with $50 million of hidden liabilities.
02 / Big Un FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
SMH (21 Sep 2018), citing Deloitte administrators’ report, says Big Un and controlled entities appeared insolvent from at least 1 July 2017, and that reported revenue/cash flow was a mirage: BRTV invoiced financier FCS $12,000 (even on informal customer acceptance), received 35% cash, but booked the full $12,000 as revenue until accounting-standard changes forced reporting of actual customer revenue.
Administrators led by Deloitte’s Neil Cussen told creditors it appears the company and controlled entities would have been insolvent from at least 1 July 2017.
SMH reports claimed revenue and cash flow were a mirage: BRTV recognised full $12,000 invoices to financier FCS as revenue while receiving only 35% cash, including where customers had only informal acceptance.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Asset restructuring
AFR (27 Aug 2018) reports ASX-listed Big Un Limited called in administrators; Deloitte Restructuring Services said it was appointed on Friday (24 Aug 2018). Subsidiary Big Review TV had been placed in administration in May.
- Liquidation
Liquidator firm Olvera Advisors’ creditor page states Big Un was placed into administration on 24 Aug 2018 and into liquidation on 23 Oct 2019; Neil Cussen is liquidator.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Revenue financed by the company itself is not revenue: Big Un paid 24% commissions to a financier lending to its own customers - a circular model that collapsed on inspection.
- 02
Hidden liabilities kill trust permanently: $50M in undisclosed debts turned a market darling into a liquidation.
- 03
Insider trading around a fraud compounds the crime: the CEO (Richard Evans/Evertz), the CFO, an analyst and the auditor were all convicted or charged by ASIC.
- 04
A hot stock is not due diligence: one of the ASX's best-performing shares of 2017 was a house of cards - price momentum never validates the books.
- 05
Audits matter: the auditor was convicted for failing to audit to standards; a clean audit might have caught this in 2017.