On top of bankruptcy proceedings, the woman behind a $1.5 billion plan to snap up a chunk of New Zealand's dairy industry is now being investigated by the Overseas Investment Office.Chinese-born New Zealand citizen May Wang's UBNZ Funds Management bought
On top of bankruptcy proceedings, the woman behind a $1.5 billion plan to snap up a chunk of New Zealand’s dairy industry is now being investigated by the Overseas Investment Office.
Chinese-born New Zealand citizen May Wang’s UBNZ Funds Management bought four North Island dairy farms earlier this year. Two of the farms were owned by Robert Crafar’s Nugen Farms company, which is in receivership.
After they were bought, the titles were transferred to another May Wang company, UBNZ Assets Holdings – 20% of which is owned by Hong Kong-listed company Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings.
The OIO’s investigation is to obtain detailed information and the farm purchases.
OIO manager Annelies McClure said the probe was launched because no application for consent was received by the office.
Under the Overseas Investment Act 2005, consent from the OIO is required by overseas persons and associates of overseas persons who intend to purchase sensitive New Zealand land.
The land in question is considered to be sensitive land under the Act.
“Part of the investigation will involve the OIO establishing whether a breach of the Act has been committed,” said Ms McClure.
“It is an offence for an overseas person or an associate of an overseas person to buy sensitive land without consent and significant penalties apply.”
The office expects the investigation to take several months to complete due to the complexity of the transactions and the need to source and thoroughly analyse the information.
Penalties for breaches of the act can reach $300,000.
Earlier this week, Westpac NZ began bankruptcy proceedings against Ms Wang over a $620,000 debt. The case was adjourned at the High Court in Auckland until June.
Ms Wang said in a statement this afternoon that she was no surprised the OIO was investigating.
"It was probably inevitable given the hysterical, overblown and often incorrect coverage given by some media to the UBNZ/Natural Dairy deal."
Ms Wang said she was confident the OIO investigation would prove there was no breach of the Act.
"Unfortunately, the investigation poses the risk of slowing down the remainder of the overall deal, which is subject to OIO approval, whereby Natural Dairy would invest up to $1.5 billion in the New Zealand dairy industry."
Ms Wang said some media have made much of her previous business difficulties, which she was working hard to remedy.
She claimed the media was using her financial difficulties as a means of undermining the credibility of Natural Dairy and its plans.
