The New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has suspended the certificates of Pacific Aerospace, after it told the regulator it is insolvent, but operators of aircraft made by the New Zealand aircraft manufacturer may continue flying, Smart Aviation reported. The CAA says the aircraft manufacturer notified it on 10 February that it was insolvent, “and as a result, we suspended Pacific Aerospace’s certificates which had previously allowed it to design, manufacture and maintain aircraft,” the CAA says in a statement.
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New Zealand
New Zealand is clamping down on property investors in an attempt to rein in spiraling house prices, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank said Tuesday that it will reinstate mortgage lending restrictions on March 1 and tighten them further for investors from May 1.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand said on Sunday that it was responding with urgency to a breach of one of its data systems, Reuters reported. A third-party file-sharing service used by the central bank to share and store some sensitive information was illegally accessed, the bank said in a statement. RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr said that the breach had been contained but added it would take time to understand the full implications of this breach. n August, the operator of New Zealand’s stock exchange was hit by cyberattacks.
More than two-thirds of mortgage and personal loans that had principal and interest repayments deferred due to the impact of Covid-19 were now "back to normal", says the New Zealand Bankers' Association, the New Zealand Herald reported. At the same time, nearly 40 per cent of those loans that had reduced repayments were now back on track. In March, in consultation with the government, the Reserve Bank and credit reporting agencies, all New Zealand retail banks offered loan deferrals for up to six months and reduced loan repayments to customers financially impacted by the Covid-19
Air New Zealand Ltd plans to draw on a NZ$900 million ($596.34 million) government loan within days to help it weather the coronavirus pandemic after reporting its first annual loss in almost two decades, Reuters reported. The funding injection will provide some much needed liquidity as the airline burns through cash, but it will come at a cost. Along with interest rates of 7-9%, the loan gives the government the right to seek repayment through a capital raising after six months or convert the loan to equity.
Travel agent STA Travel Group has gone into voluntary administration. It comes after the collapse of the travel group’s Swiss-based parent company STA Travel Holding AG, which filed for insolvency, Business Insider Australia reported. STA operates online travel agent services and 27 outlets in Australia, with Deloitte’s Jason Tracy and Timothy Norman appointed as administrators on August 21.
Next year is going to be a "watershed year" for business failures an insolvency expert is predicting, unless companies can come up with a plan now to get out of debt and survive, the New Zealand Herald reported. John Fisk, national leader of restructuring for PwC and chair of the Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association New Zealand, said that insolvency applications had come down significantly under lockdown but massive amounts of government subsidies meant many businesses weren't addressing the underlying issues related to debt.
New Zealand’s central bank warned that the coronavirus pandemic presents a significant challenge to the country’s financial institutions, which could be stressed by failing businesses and loan defaults, Bloomberg News reported. While the financial system entered the crisis in good shape, “it’s capacity to absorb shocks is not unlimited,” the Reserve Bank said in its semi-annual Financial Stability Report published Wednesday in Wellington.
Tamarind Taranaki was placed in liquidation at a watershed meeting with creditors this morning, The New Zealand Herald reported. The company, which operates the Tui oil fields ran into debts when a drilling campaign in September went over budget and was unsuccessful. Malaysian-owned Tamarind Taranaki reportedly has debts of around $350 million, including a US$100 million claim from the New Zealand Government for the decommissioning costs of closing and cleaning up the fields.
Eric Watson's Cullen Group has been moved into liquidation by court order, meaning it might no longer fight a $112 million tax judgment against it. The company was moved into the hands of KPMG liquidator Vivian Fatupaito earlier this week, by court appointment, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Inland Revenue Department had been pursuing the company's liquidation after Justice Matthew Palmer ruled in March this year that Cullen Group was part of Watson's "web of entities" designed to avoid paying non-resident withholding tax.