Hotels taken over by receiver

Press, 4 January 1988, Page 4

Hotels taken over by receiver

Staff reporters Hotels in Christchurch, Greymouth and Blenheim are members of a group of companies which were taken over by a Government-appointed receiver at the week-end.

The Camelot Court hotel in Papanui Road, the West Coast Country Lodge (formerly King’s Hotel), and the Blenheim Sun (formerly the Blenheim Autolodge Hotel) are part of the Pacific Sun Hotel group of nine hotels. Its affairs are said by the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, to be in a shambles. Investigations by the corporate fraud squad in Auckland led to the urgent action by the Government. It appointed an Auckland accountant, Mr Harold Goodman, as receiver and manager of each of the companies incorporated in New Zealand to run the nine hotels.

Mr Palmer said this was necessary to protect shareholders and creditors in the Pacific Sun group. "The affairs of the companies are in a shambles, there is disagreement about who is in charge, the companies are in serious financial difficulty, and there is a whole series of legal disputes,” he said.

Pacific Sun Hotels is a publicly listed company. Trading in its shares was

suspended on the New Zealand Stock Exchange on December 23. The company is incorporated in the Bahamas and registered in New Zealand as an overseas company. A chain of nine hotels — six in New Zealand and three in Fiji — is run by the group. The three other hotels in New Zealand are the Bay Sun, Pahia, the Bay Estate Country Lodge, Te Puke, and the Plymouth Sun, New Plymouth. Before it acted, the Government received advice from the Securities Commission and the Registrar of Companies, said Mr Palmer. Mr Goodman said he wanted to assure the several hundred staff em-

ployed by the group that the hotels would be kept running. “It is in everyone’s interest to have them run as efficiently as possible.” Mr Goodman said he would contact the staff and management of each of the hotels. The manager of Camelot Court, Mr Stephen Guerin, said last evening that Mr Goodman

had been in touch with the hotel. Business at the Papanui Road hotel would

continue normally in the meantime. “We are to await further advice,” he said. Camelot Court had become part of the Pacific Sun chain about two years ago. Mr Guerin’s father, Mr John Guerin, was a director of Pacific Sun but no longer holds that post. He was involved in legal action with the company over shareholdings in Pacific Sun for his interests in Camelot Court and the Autolodge in Blenheim. Mr Stephen Guerin said he was manager of Camelot Court when Pacific Sun bought the hotel and he had been kept on in that role.

Pacific Sun Hotels became a public company in December 1986. In August, 1986, when the company was registered in New Zealand, the value of the hotels it then owned was $19.8 million. It has since bought more hotels. Last August, the company pulled out of a $44 million deal to sell its New Zealand and Fiji

hotels. It announced the sale of an 85 per cent share to a Hong Kong

investment company, but declined to name the buyer when asked to do so by the Stock Exchange. That deal was later delayed by the Fijian coup.

Early in September, the company went to court over possession of the Pacific Sun Hotel (formerly the White Heron) in Auckland and later withdrew from the agreement to buy the hotel.

The Bank of New Zealand appointed two directors to the company on December 23. One of these men, Mr John Pittar, of Australia Commercial Life Insurance, said that he and his colleague, Mr Geoffrey Thorpe, had been appointed by BNZ to take control of the company. The bank was a big creditor. The two new directors removed Mr Phil HydeHarris and his managing director, Mr Murray Hoare. Mr Hyde-Harris said on Friday that he had a controlling interest in the company bought from the former managing director, Mr Nic Iverson. He and Mr Hoare were running the company, he said.