Until earlier this year, he had been living in the “Bang and Olufsen” mansion in Point Piper, paying up to $20,000 a week in rent.
More recently, Adgemis was living in a Bondi apartment owned by fund manager Will Vicars. A Rose Bay property, purchased with his mother Rose for $4.45 million in 2018, was repossessed.
Adgemis had been exploring a personal insolvency agreement, an arrangement that would have warded off bankruptcy and paid a small amount back to some creditors.
In late August, the Inspector-General in bankruptcy intervened, voicing concerns that the trustees running the process had not adequately investigated Adgemis’ assets or provided enough detail to creditors.
The Inspector-General had not found any breaches but issued a warning about the consequences of misusing the system.
A statement from an Adgemis spokesman on Thursday suggested there had been delays in finalising of the personal insolvency agreement.
Under a deed of company arrangement, the spokesman said, $7.3 million in convertible notes would have funded “the payment of superannuation and employee entitlements owed to approximately 800 former employees”.
Jon Adgemis started buying hospitality venues during the pandemic. Credit: Ready Media Group
But after the expiry of a loan facility, these convertible notes became “practically worthless”.
On Tuesday, McGrathNicol were appointed as receivers for five remaining hotel developments, including the Empire Hotel in Annandale and the Hotel Diplomat in Kings Cross.
Jon Adgemis’ had owned the private yacht Hiilani, which once belonged to Hollywood star Shirley Temple.
This week’s collapse comes 16 months after a major restructuring of Public Hospitality Group’s debt by a consortium led by global investment provider Deutsche Bank. The deal had provided a $400 million lifeline.
Adgemis, who graduated with a degree in economics, took up a role in KPMG’s mergers and acquisitions team in 1999.
In 2015, he founded the JAGA Group, a property venture. During the pandemic, he started buying up pubs and refitting them as part of Public Hospitality Group.
“The way in which we looked at those assets was that they’re well-positioned assets,” Adgemis said in a 2022 interview. “They’re doing very well on the ground level, but there’s greater opportunity in everything above the ground.”
But by 2024, Public Hospitality Group had begun to shed venues. It was forced to hand over hotels such as the Town Hall in Balmain and the Kurrajong in Erskineville to receivers who then sold them.
Adgemis said on Thursday he would fully co-operate with the bankruptcy process. As a bankrupt, he will be barred from acting as a company director for a period of time.
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