Erceg's Sensation Yachts finally in liquidation
After months of dodging enormous bills Ivan Erceg’s luxury boat building company Sensation Yachts has finally been forced into liquidation.
Creditor Public Trust filed an application to liquidate the troubled company on Friday, which was approved at the High Court at Auckland.
Peri Finnigan of McDonald Vague was appointed as liquidators of Sensation Yachts yesterday.
Ms Finnigan said McDonald Vague had contact with Mr Erceg and that they had spoken to him today.
He is believed to be in the south of France, where is alleged to be selling his flagship yacht Sensation – which he inherited from brother Michael – and his multi-million dollar mansion in Marseille.
Ms Finnigan said Mr Erceg planned to appoint a receiver as soon as possible to protect the security holder of Sensation Yachts' assets, who is believed to have family connections to Mr Erceg.
Ms Finnigan said McDonald Vague did not have Mr Erceg’s phone number, and that he was in control of communication.
“We are to receive the records of the company from his accountant. But it is very difficult [to liquidate a company] when the director is not very co-operative."
She said it was not yet known how much creditors were owed.
It is believed to be in the millions.
Over the past six months there have been various attempts by creditors such as Inland Revenue and Sensation Yachts' former lawyers Gary Pollack and Co to place the company into liquidation.
But until now, Mr Erceg has saved his Auckland-based boat building company by paying his bills at the 11th hour.
In March, NBR reported that two applications to liquidate the company had been withdrawn from the High Court at Auckland, and that Mr Erceg had been ordered by the Court of Appeal to pay a former client Balenia $US21 million ($NZ31 million) for three vessels Sensation Yachts was contracted to build.
In June, NBR reported that Mr Erceg was trying to avoid paying risk management firm Det Norske Veritas PTE around $360,000, which had conducted a risk assessment for Sensation Yachts.
Mr Erceg brother’s Michael Erceg was the former alco-pop multi-millionaire who died in a helicopter crash near Raglan on the west coast of the North Island in 2005.
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Comments
Bye bye
Good riddance to Mr Erceg and his cohorts! They've been a stain on New Zealand's reputation as world class yacht builders for too long.
I am one of many.
It may be coming to a end but Ivan still owes money to small traders and staff members. They will never get a cent from Ivan our anybody else. Ivan does not have the guts to front the creditors in NZ. He will hide behind a suit and say it is everybody eles fault. He will take the weak option.
Can it really be the end?
We are all still waiting payment Mr Erceg.
Hopefully the liquidators realise that Ivan will always be uncontactable, uncooperative and unable to stop laying blame on everyone but himself. May the authorities ensure that he gets dragged back from the South of France to reality in NZ to face the music.
Lets calm down
Sensation Yachts is now in recievership. Why not calm down and attempt to let the parties work through this.
To date a huge amount of money has been paid to creditors which says a lot.
When Mr Erceg gets the group running again surely it will be a huge boost to the local marine community at a time when the industry needs it the most.
Why has Mr Erceg pursevered so long and paid so many debts? Surely not to let it all fall over.
If you are looking at slagging someone, why not concentrate of the finance companies, bridgecorp etc who have genuinely ripped off many many prople.
Typical Kiwi Business owner
Whart are the details of your bill?
Comment by 'Worker'
'The parties' and other creditors have been waiting, and waiting and waiting. Apparently you cannot get paid by Mr Erceg until you put a liquidation proceedings against him. Suddenly you may get payment - but not before you have wasted large amounts of time and money chasing him around the world. Most of the smaller creditors; including his employees; cannot afford this type of action.
We are not saying that Mr Erceg is not trying to preserve his company. The fact that he has paid off large creditors shows that he is attempting to pay off those people that can shut him down. There has been little to no attempt to pay off those other small creditors and employees who are hurting the most and cannot afford lengthy legal proceedings to get paid. What we are saying is that he is very obviously incapable of running a company and should be banned from doing so.
Tha fact is that Ivan is hiding abroad. Just a delay.
What a man Ivan is?
Pretty easy to guess: he says that he's been straggling to save his company and jobs for the last 3 years.
Where is he now when he has to face reality?
Hiding abroad like a coward.
That's the evidence he does not care much about his business.
Ivan you own me a lot of money and you bet, I'll find you and get it, one way or another !
Reality-check
A worldwide survey will show that there are only some 30 shipyards WW capable of building high quality superyachts and SENSATION is one off them. In this modern day-and-age, one would imagine many more players, right ? This goes to show that at 1st instance; Ivan is a talented, resourceful and financially resourceful guy
Turning to the problem;
If anyone does a research as to WHY yacht builders have failed, the consistent answer will be its clients (the buyers). There are some 'professionals' who do this for a living
Save SENSATION and if Ivan can continue to add value, support him. This is best for all. Good luck !
Con Man
You are the one that needs the reality check "Realist" .Clearly you have never met Ivan and are obviously not owed money by him. If you did know him and/or owed money by him you would not be writing such mindless dribble. He is a con man and that's not a talent to be proud of. Ripping people off who are already struggling so that he can live the high life is just plain immoral, not resourceful. As far as being financially savvy, it's well known that his late brother bailed him out of trouble several times and after Michael died Ivan would beg Michael's wife for money and then his own mother. How does ripping people off add value? People did support him and look where it got them. Your comments are clearly reflective of an attention seeking , blame shifting moron. Hey maybe you are Ivan. If so I want my money you gutless leech.
Conman
I felt that the writing was on the wall for Sensation a long while ago - yes they have produced some award winning boats thanks to some truly skilled people working for them but comments made by Ripped off are bang on the mark! Regretably fate dealt a cruel blow
to Sensation when Michael - died he was a true Gentleman.
This guy was truly loathsome
I worked there for 3 years and saw the way close up how he handled his company and the employees. Dodgy to say the very least. We never had enough material to do the job. It was embarassing. Him and his nephew use to shift stuff from one boat to another to pretend they had met targets to get payments from owners. We worked very hard despite him to make mediocre products at best. He is the worst of the worst, the writing has been on this wall ever sicne he bought the company, It was his brother who managed to keep it going as long as it did. Good riddance to very bad rubbish.
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