Debt has forced a major Australian vegetable grower of tomatoes, capsicums and zucchinis into receivership, The Australian reported. Barbera Farms employs more than 500 people and grows produce at Bundaberg and Childers in southern Queensland and Bowen in the state's north. The receivers, Justin Walsh and Chris Munday, partners at accounting firm Ernst & Young, expect the farm will sell within months.

A Perth building company with about $30 million in contracts from the Building the Education Revolution program has fallen into administration, pinning the blame for its financial woes on the West Australian government's mismanagement of the scheme, The Australian reported. Midland Constructions owes its creditors more than $3m and has been forced to halt work at schools in Perth's eastern suburbs and Avon Valley.

The receivers of Australian clothing and footwear retailer Colorado Group have put the businesses up for sale, asking for expressions of interest by April 19, Reuters reported. Colorado Group, owned by Affinity Equity Partners, surrendered control of the business to its lenders last week. It was the second private-equity-owned store chain to do so in Australia in as many months after the collapse of bookstore owner REDGroup. Colorado's lenders, including Mizuho Corporate Bank , National Australia Bank and several hedge funds, are owed about A$400 million ($411.5 million).

Treasury has warned the federal government that the river of company tax revenue that has supported the budget for the past eight years is drying up, with payments falling massively short of budget projections, The Australian reported. A Treasury executive minute to Wayne Swan has blamed the strength of the Australian dollar and the run of Reserve Bank rate rises for the shortfall, and says the government should not expect the minerals boom to bring a quick turnaround.

One of Australia's largest solar panel installers has gone into administration leaving debts understood to be worth millions of dollars and unfulfilled contracts with customers in Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, The Canberra Times reported. DCM Green went into voluntary administration on March 10. Administrator Alan Hayes said on Friday the company was insolvent, had ceased trading and all staff had been dismissed. He was investigating whether it would be possible to resurrect the company but it was too soon to tell.

Ferrier Hodgson, voluntary administrators for Whitcoulls' parent, REDgroup, yesterday sought High Court approval to extend the time available to consider its options, The New Zealand Herald reported. Under the voluntary administration rules, a so-called "watershed" meeting, where creditors are advised of the state of play with the company, needs to be held five weeks after the appointment of a voluntary administrator, which would have made it March 24.

Private equity group TPG and its partners won't be the biggest losers if Alinta Energy's dissident shareholders vote down their $2 billion bailout plan for the company next week, The Australian reported. Alinta chief Ross Rolfe has made it clear the company, with 5 per cent of Australia's electricity generation capacity spread across 10 power stations and more than 500,000 retail gas and electricity customers in Victoria and WA, will be placed in administration if the deal does not succeed.

Bond sales by companies outside the financial industry are so scarce in Australia that the nation’s largest retailer, Woolworths Ltd., is paying less to borrow than banks and General Electric Co., Bloomberg reported. Relative yields on Australian company bonds are the lowest in three years, reflecting the paucity of non-financial corporate debt in the nation’s credit market, at less than three percent of the A$32 billion of notes sold in 2011, Bloomberg data and Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Australian Industrial Index show.

Australian toll road operator RiverCity Motorway said it will consider appointing an administrator later Friday after lenders refused to give it a reprieve on $1.3 billion it owes, Reuters reported. RiverCity, which operates the Clem Jones Tunnel in Australia's third-largest city, Brisbane, said in a statement lenders did not approve its request for a standstill agreement by a Feb. 24 deadline.

In a blow to the Australian banking industry, ratings firm Moody's Investors Service unexpectedly placed the country's four largest banks on review for a possible downgrade, citing their dependence on global lending markets, The Wall Street Journal reported. A downgrade from their current investment grade rating of Aa1—one notch below Moody's top rating—could increase their costs even as they worry that Australia's rising interest rates will crimp profitability.