The company was founded in Hamilton in 1946 by Fred Hawkins.
In 2017, just prior to an adverse ruling that Hawkins should pay $13.3m to the Ministry of Education over a flawed construction project at a Botany Downs secondary school, Hawkins sold its business operations to Downer for a reported $60m.
Hawkins at the time was the second-largest New Zealand-owned construction firm, with reported annual revenues of about $700m and a staff of around 700.
ASX-listed Downer still maintains the Hawkins brand for its New Zealand operations.
The underwater remnants of Hawkins left out of the sale were rebranded as the Orange H Group and had receivers appointed in 2018 by shareholder and industry heavyweights the McConnell family, who claimed to be…