Aust. gets first E’corp claims

Press, 10 February 1989, Page 18

Aust. gets first E’corp claims

PA Auckland Cash proceeds from the sale of Equiticorp assets in New Zealand by the Govern-ment-appointed receivers will first be fed into Australia to satisfy claims in that country. Principal receiver, Mr Fred Watson, told a press conference yesterday that the four Australian companies under a provisional liquidator held residual security over the shares in many of the New Zealand trading companies. The amount of cash from sales of assets his team was able to feed into Australia

would determine how much cash came back to New Zealand, Mr Watson said, by virtue of New Zealand shareholding in those Australian companies. Some of the Australian Equiticorp companies held second and third mortgages over shares in New Zealand Equiticorp trading companies. The value of these mortgages depended on the proceeds of New Zealand Mr Watson was flanked by the provisional liquidator of the Australian Equiticorp companies, Mr John Harkness.

Mr Harkness is spending two days in New Zealand to reach agreement with the New Zealand receivers on the details of securities held, and to review the processes in place for preserving the assets in New Zealand or marketing those that could be sold. The New Zealand statutory receivers control the shares held by Equiticorp in New Zealand Steel, Mr Watson said, and sharebroker. Buttle Wilson, had been appointed to supervise an international tender of the shareholding with a March 20 deadline.