Strategic Finance liquidators pull plug

Investors owed $380 million will have to place hopes of any recoveries with the financier's receivers, now the liquidators have closed the books.

NBR staff
Fri, 02 Nov 2012

Strategic Finance investors owed $380 million will have to place hopes of any recoveries with the financier’s receivers, now the liquidators have closed the books.

Liquidators John Cregten and Andrew McKay of Corporate Finance were appointed to Strategic in July 2010 and immediately began investigating some key transactions carried out before the company’s demise.

Those investigations have now closed, concluding any preference that may have been obtained was not at the expense of the company’s general unsecured creditors, Mr Mackay says in today’s print edition of the National Business Review.

“The transactions in question were now a matter for the receivers to consider," Mr McKay says.

Since Strategic failed in August 2008, investors owed $380 million have been repaid just 8.5c in the dollar, or $31.3 million of their principal.

Receivers John Fisk and Colin McCloy of PwC estimate total recovery of between 12% and 26%. Lower-ranked investors owed $23.4 million will get nothing.

PwC is understood to still be considering legal action over several complex transactions undertaken during 2007 and 2008.

The Financial Markets Authority has yet to provide an update on its investigation into Strategic, although it did issue a statement in March saying that a probe into the role of the late Jock Hobbs ended in June 2011 because of his illness.

Strategic Finance directors also included Kerry Finnigan, Graham Jackson, Marc Lindale, Graham Jackson and David Wolfenden.

The company provided property finance for a range of ambitious projects, including Auckland’s now sold Soho Square development, the Fiji Hilton and a 130ha subdivision at Bendemeer near Queenstown.

NBR staff
Fri, 02 Nov 2012

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Strategic Finance liquidators pull plug