Home Loans pay-out: 50c in $1

Press, 4 August 1983, Page 22

Home Loans pay-out: 50c in $1

Creditors and optionholders of the failed Home Loans Group of companies received 50 cents in the dollar this week. The payout by the joint liquidators, Mr J. M. Ott and Mr W. J. Ainger, of the national accounting firm, Lawrence Anderson Buddle, totalled $535,456. They expect that the creditors will get another 15 cents in the dollar in December, 1984 when under the mortgage scheme of arrangement, mortgage advances fall due. The liquidators are seeking to recover money awarded by the Court against the former group managing director, Mr W. M. Robertson, who they understand is now living in Australia. The group was placed in liquidation by the courts in June, 1979, and after a long series of court cases the liquidators have now been able to make this their first distribution. In a complex liquidation, the Court had to decide on: • Schemes of arrangement for mortgage advances. • Rectification of the share register. • A civil action against the former managing director. • A case on the ranking

of different groups of creditors. Total proofs of debt accepted by the liquidators amount to $1,070,911. High interest rates received by the liquidators on the funds raised during the period of the liquidation have assisted in helping not only to cover the costs of liquidation but also in additional payments to all proved creditors, say Mr Ott and Mr Ainger. There were nine public and two private companies in the group. Mr Justice Casey described the group’s scheme as essentially a combination of a mutual finance and lending operation for those seeking housing. Contributors, through options, were eventually entitled to mortgages at a very low rate of interest. The financing of earlier' groups was to come from contributions in later companies. Such “rolling”-type financing was banned by the Companies Amendment Act, 1978. The liquidators were appointed under the Company Special Investigations Act. This enabled them to put forward a scheme to the Court whereby those who had agreed to invest (up to $16,000 each) to obtain a loan later were not asked to meet this liability.