Farm goes to company that called auction

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 3

Farm goes to company that called auction

Dan Dufty did not know whether to be happy or sad when his Waerenga farm was sold to the company which called yesterday’s mortgagee auction in Hamilton. The buying of the sheep and cattle property by Westpac Merchant Finance means Mr Dufty has a good chance of working out a deal for himself, his wife, Gill and their three children to stay on the property. The move was the result of no bid at the auction held yesterday at Lugton Land, a Hamilton

auction centre. The managing director and auctioneer, Mr David Lugton, told the group of about 50 present that any bid would have been subject to payment of the first mortgage and interest which totalled $313,000. In other words, a bid of $lOO,OOO would have in effect been $413,000. But his request for a bid of $150,000 eventually dropped to. $40,000, and there was still no response. Mr Lugton then said the property would be sold to the mortgagee

which called the sale at redemption price.

Mr Dufty, who had been close to tears throughout the reading of conditions and the calls for bids, took a few minutes to gather his thoughts before speaking to the news media. He said he hoped he could now negotiate with Westpac to stay on the property. “They have said they are prepared to negotiate and look at arriving at some solution. They have been really good about this whole situation and they have done everything they said they would,” he said. "I’m a lot happier now the sale is over. The fact there was no bid, was I think, a vote of no-confid-

ence in mortgagee sales.” He hoped some sort of lease arrangement, or syndicate buy ,“or some solution” would be found. But he was confident his family would remain on the land. One of those at the sale was Federated Farmers’ Dominion senior vicepresident, Mr Brian Chamberlain. He said he was there as an old friend of Mr Dufty’s to show support. He hoped the result would ’be a good solution. “I was not surprised there was no bid. Farming is in such a state people do not want to pay out a lot of cash and I also think people do not want to buy from someone who does not want to sell.”