Least surprising decision
Adam Bennett reports in the Herald:
The Government has turned down Hong Kong listed Natural Dairy NZ’s controversial bid to buy the Crafar dairy farms.
Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson said they had declined Natural Dairy’s Overseas Investment Office application to buy the 16 farms from receivers in a deal thought to be worth about $200 million. …
“We concur with the Overseas Investment Office’s recommendation that consent should be declined,” the Ministers said.
Not exactly a surprise. It will be interesting to see what the receivers now do.
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Tags: foreign investment, Natural Dairy
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December 23rd, 2010 at 10:12 am
The receivers should be trying to sell the farms individually. There would be far more possible buyers and the total rpice gained would probably be greater than they’d get by trying to sell them as a unit.
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:02 am
Although receivers are naturally obliged to seek the best possible price for goods, services or in this case real estate, are they obliged to seek, as homepaddock advises, to divide up and find buyers for individual items to gain the best possible price?
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:10 am
Xenophobes.
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:54 am
In other news, Sky is blue, water is wet…….
December 23rd, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Did Winston Peters, xenophobe extraordinaire, have any input in this decision?
December 23rd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
The Receivers will now have to sell the Crafar dairy farms to North Korea at a knock down bargain basement price.
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Crafar is making dark hints that he’s getting finance himself.
I recall that his last attempt involved trying to bank a bit of paper from some maoris which said something like “this letter is worth a billion billion dollars, please respect that” so I’m not holding my breath.
http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2010/09/thank-god-crafar-never-met-scf.html
December 24th, 2010 at 7:09 am
So the recievers have it all sorted. See the last paragraph.
Official Assignee to nominate director to run Wang’s companies
NICK KRAUSE – BusinessDay.co.nz
Last updated 05:00 24/12/2010
The bankruptcy administrator – the Official Assignee – is to appoint a director to manage the UBNZ group of companies associated with May Wang.
The bankrupted frontwoman of the rejected Chinese-backed bid for the Crafar farms may no longer be a company director.
On Wednesday, the Government refused consent under the Overseas Investment Act for Hong Kong-listed Natural Dairy and the locally listed UBNZ companies fronting the deal to buy the 16 Crafar farms from the receiver, KordaMentha.
It also refused retrospective consent for the February purchase of four Crafar-related farms. This was based on Overseas Investment Office advice that the bidders had failed the “good character” test required under the act.
Wang was bankrupted on December 8. She is due to appear in court in June over three Companies Act charges. The Serious Fraud Office is meanwhile probing sale and land transactions between UBNZ and Natural Dairy.
These events had “cast doubt” on her character, the OIO said. With the $213 million deal to buy the 16 remaining farms dead in the water, the OIO is now considering what to do about the four farms which were sold by UBNZ Funds Management to another Wang-related UBNZ company.
The OIO can apply to the High Court to have the land or assets sold if the court finds an offence has been committed under the act. Those involved with Natural Dairy/UBNZ could also face penalties of up to $300,000 for breaches.
Auckland Official Assignee David Harte said his office had been asked to nominate a director or directors to run Wang’s company. The nominees do not include anyone from the Insolvency and Trustee Service.
“Current investigations and legal documentation sourced show that these farms are owned by UBNZ Asset Management and not May Wang personally,” Mr Harte said.
“Therefore they do not vest in the OA and are not under our control. May Wang was the sole director of this company but she did not hold any of the shares personally.”
Eighty per cent of the shares were held by UBNZ Trustee (the UBNZ Trust’s corporate trustee) and 20 per cent by Natural Dairy.
“On this basis, and unless the ownership arrangement of UBNZ Asset Management is found to be incorrect – ie, an invalid trust that is simply a front for the bankrupt – the company is the owner of those farms and needs to liaise with the OIO as to what needs to happen now,” he said.
UBNZ Trustee Ltd requested that the Official Assignee appoint a new director to replace Wang so decisions could be made about the group’s future.
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“We are considering that as we receive the information required to make an assessment,” Mr Harte said. “There is time for a considered decision as the farms currently have a farm manager and funding to carry on for a while, with no animal welfare or business issues, until the decision is made in the near future.”
The OIO’s decision summary on the rejected convoluted transactions showed Natural Dairy planned to pay $100m for the 80 per cent of UBNZ Asset Holdings it did not already own and also that UBNZ Trustee holds a 17.45 per cent stake in Natural Dairy.
KordaMentha receiver Brendon Gibson said he was confident the 16 farms under the receiver’s control would be sold. It was waiting for UBNZ’s response to the Government’s decision.