Flotation Fails, But Mr Wiles To Continue

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32383, 24 August 1970, Page 1

Flotation Fails, But Mr Wiles To Continue

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 23. The proposed Walter Peak tourist development project would go ahead as originally planned, a Yorkshire millionaire, Mr G. Wiles, said tonight.

But because there had been insufficient investment in the public company, Walter Peak, Ltd, the development of the sheep station near Queenstown would be continued as a private concern.

“The New Zealand public has been given a chance to participate, but it has not responded,” he said from Auckland. The minimum investment needed to ensure the success of the Sim flotation had not been reached and the money subscribed so far would be returned. “I thank shareholders who have subscribed, and I hope to see them at Walter Peak some time,” he said. He said he was unable to reveal how much of the issue .of two million ordinary 50c

shares had been taken up. “My solicitors are the only ones who know that,” he said. Mr Wiles will leave for overseas on Tuesday on a business trip which will include stops in the United Kingdom, New York, and Hong Kong.

He said he expected to be back in New Zealand in a month. He would make a statement then about the formation of a private company.

The first-stage plans for development at Queenstown included a village of 100 holiday chalets, a licensed restaurant, a conference hall, a golf course, a swimming pool, sauna baths, and squash courts.

This scheme and further stages would go ahead, Mr Wiles said. But it would take longer than expected because of the failure of the public issue.

“It must go through exactly as planned,” he said. “It is either that or nothing.”

Mr Wiles said he had spent about $900,000 on acquiring ownership of 1300 freehold acres, the lease on 59,000 acres of Crown land, and the formation, flotation, and promotion of Walter Peak, Ltd, over the last two yean.. He said he was not bitter about the poor response to the public issue. “I came from Britain three years and a half ago and wanted the New Zealand public to share in the scheme,” he said. “This has not come about and now I intend to go it alone.”