PHOTO: The Bang & Olufsen house last traded in 2013 for $33.5 million. Photo: Supplied
Point Piper’s trophy home colloquially known as “the Bang & Olufsen house” has, for almost a decade, stood as an unofficial monument to the wealth and stature of its rumoured owner Yafu Qiu, head of Chinese textile giant Shandong Ruyi.
But early this year, creditors and liquidators started circling Ruyi’s debt-laden fashion subsidiaries, and it seems the Qiu family hopes to make what one source dubbed a “quiet exit” from the landmark Sydney house.
The waterfront property, nicknamed by Elton John given its resemblance to a high-tech stereo, was last sold in 2013 for $33.5 million by Seven commercial director Bruce McWilliam to a beneficial trust fronted by Shandong Ruyi’s former Australian boss Tony McKenna.
At the time, the Shandong Ruyi was known for its $232 million purchase of Cubbie Station and its accompanying licences to store more water than Sydney Harbour, but that ended in March, when Macquarie Asset Management bought the company’s remaining 51 per cent stake.
More recently, a slew of the company’s fashion subsidiaries have been making headlines globally given troubling debt levels. This year alone, the British tailoring brand subsidiary Trinity Limited has been placed in liquidation as creditors circled its Lycra business, and Qiu and his daughter Chenran Qiu have been removed from the board of the French fashion firm SMCP after a loan default.
And all while Chenran and her husband Jerry Liu recently revealed their involvement in the Bang & Olufsen house after each of their lawyers lodged separate caveats claiming their beneficial interest in the property.
No doubt complicating matters for the Qiu family is McKenna’s departure from the company last year and his appointment as chief of forestry company Midway in January.
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