Maier leaves South Canterbury Finance early

The "turnaround" man brought in to help the restructuring of South Canterbury Finance (SCF) is no longer working for the company.

Kerryn Downey of receiver McGrathNicol confirmed Sandy Maier -- signed up as chief executive of SCF for one year last December -- went on "gardening leave" four or five weeks ago and would officially finish with the company at the end of the month.

A confidential settlement payment had been made to Mr Maier, who was a "turnaround guy, not really a receiver", and wanted to pursue other directorships after focusing so much time on SCF, Mr Downey said.

In another SCF development, The Timaru Herald reported that some SCF investors who had been donating their interest payments to charities were finding that the entire principal of their investment had been paid to the charity instead of the investor.

After receivers were appointed to SCF on August 31 the Government announced it would make full settlement to investors under the terms of the retail deposit scheme, with the money being paid through Trustees Executors, the trustee for SCF.

But at least 20 SCF investors would find the entire principal of their investment had been paid out to the charity they had been donating the interest to.

Trustees Executors regional manager Yogesh Mody said every effort had been made to ensure details were as accurate as possible for the 35,000 investors involved. But a small number of errors arising out of the information in the original SCF register had come to light since repayment was made on October 20.

One case, referred to by the newspaper, had been resolved with the money due to the investor involved being paid into the nominated account overnight.

Meanwhile, the SCF receivers announced yesterday they had appointed Deutsche Bank New Zealand as advisers on the sale of the failed company's core finance business.

The sale includes the SCF branch network, subsidiaries such as FACE Finance, and Southbury Insurance.

SCF had resumed lending to its approved consumer and business customers, and was open for business as usual, McGrathNicol's Mr Downey said.

Receivers hoped Deutsche Bank's reputation and experience would achieve the best outcome.

"South Canterbury's size and complexity makes it imperative that we work closely with our advisers in determining the best sale strategy to deliver the optimal outcome for the Crown and other stakeholders," Mr Downey said.

Deutsche Bank would be in contact in the next few weeks with parties that expressed an interest in acquiring the finance business, although a formal sale process was unlikely to start until early next year.

In March, Timaru businessman Allan Hubbard's Southbury Corp transferred $152.5m of assets into South Canterbury Finance to improve its prospects as it reported a $154.9 million interim loss.

SCF later collapsed, triggering a large payout from the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme.

Last week, Goldman Sachs&Partners NZ were appointed to advise receivers on the sale of 100 percent of Helicopters New Zealand and a majority stake in Scales Corp.

Helicopters NZ and Scales are separate from SCF, and are not in receivership.