The liquidator of Cosmopolitan Australia publisher KK Press has identified 30 unsecured creditors claiming they are owed a total of $1,099,597.
Creditors include Australian Taxation Office ($289,681), The New York Times Company ($91,934.20) and IVE Group ($142,192).
The company went into voluntary liquidation in February.
Cosmopolitan magazine, following a hiatus of almost six years, returned to the Australian market in August 2024 in collaboration with Hearst Magazines International.
Lindsay Stephen Bainbridge and Timothy James Bradd of Pitcher Partners have been appointed liquidators, according to records at corporate regulator ASIC.
Bainbridge and Bradd, in their statutory report, list employees being owed 40,599.93.
The liquidator took out a loan to meet net wages to four employees totalling $24,230.81 and PAYG tax of $7,449.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the company continued to trade and incur debts whilst insolvent,” according to the liquidator’s report.
“Indicators of insolvency identified include (but are not limited to) ongoing losses and an inability to meet liabilities as and when they fell due. The quantum of the potential insolvent trading claim is presently estimated to be at least $275,328.”
However, the liquidator said KK Press' director, Katarina Kroslakova, denies liability in respect of the alleged insolvent trading claim.
“I’m devastated beyond words,” Kroslakova said when announcing the company had gone into voluntary liquidation.
“In just seven months, Cosmopolitan Australia became the most widely read Women’s Lifestyle Magazine.”
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