Wind-up of Kiwi Bear advised

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 28

Wind-up of Kiwi Bear advised

The directors of the Kiwi Bear Company have recommended that the firm be wound up. An extraordinary meeting of the listed opossum farmer has been called for April 26 for shareholders to decide on whether the company should be wound up. In a letter to shareholders, the directors said “this (winding up) was a decision that was not taken lightly ... as it represents the end of the road for Kiwi Bear.” The company started two years ago with the hope and enthusiasm of developing a new industry from an indigenous resource (opossums). However, it was found that too little was known about the behaviour of the wild opossum in captivity for the cage-finishing process for fur or meat to be commercially viable. The directors had to accept this fact after long, expensive experiments had failed to produce satisfactory results. These

views were endorsed by MAFTech in a report to the company in December after a 12-month study in the project’s technical aspects. These matters became evident at the time of the company’s annual meeting in September and the shareholders passed a resolution giving the directors authority to sell or lease the Reporoa farm. However, no suitable sale or leasing arrangement had been received since then, they said. Since September the company had traded on a reduced scale, withdrawing from opossum farming in December, when all the opossum pelts were offered for sale. The lower grade pelts sold at depressed prices when the local market eased in response to prices on the world fur market. “Unfortunately, the company’s better quality opossum pelts, produced over the last six months,

did not sell at the Danish fur auction in December in common with the majority of other wild furs on offer.” This was the final blow for the company, “which now has sufficient funds to continue trading for only a very short period,” they said. The fitch had been maintained on the property by a reduced staff. Although the fitch fur industry was more mature than opossum it still had to prove itself on a commercially profitable scale in New Zealand. The fitch industry might have a bright future, but the directors believed that Kiwi Bear did not have the finances to continue in it. Because of this, the directors decided to auction the Reporoa facility and recommend to shareholders that the company be wound up. The winding-up was a prudent action, which would result in creditors being paid in full