New Zealand

New Zealand shake and pour cocktails company VnC Cocktails has gone into liquidation after failed attempts to sell it, Sharechat.co.nz reported. The company went into voluntary administration on June 30, was then tipped into receivership a few days later by secured charge holder Bank of New Zealand, and has now been put into liquidation following a creditors' vote this month. VnC Cocktails hit the headlines in 2011 when it was named on reality television show 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' as the drink of choice by Kourtney Kardashian's husband Scott Disick, a brand ambassador the company.

There's no money in the pot for unsecured creditors of Postie Plus, its administrator says, NZCity reported. The nationwide clothing retailer had 650 employees and 81 stores when it it went into voluntary administration in June, and 580 kept their jobs when assets were sold to South African based Pepkor in July. A report by PwC in August is bleak reading for unsecured creditors who will meet on Monday. The administrator has $1.6 million left and $6.2m is still owned to secured creditor BNZ. BNZ was originally owed $13.7m. There is no money for unsecured creditors.

The administrators of troubled New Zealand clothing retailer Postie Plus Group Ltd said on Wednesday they have found a likely buyer for the company. The struggling company called in administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday after its bank refused to back the retail chain which has been racking up losses and losing market share for the past two years. The company's 82 shops were open for business as usual, but Postie Plus shares have been suspended from trading on the NZ stock exchange pending clarification of its future.

Postie Plus, the worst performing stock on the New Zealand stock market, has appointed administrators after its lenders withdrew support as the company continued to make ongoing losses, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Auckland-based retailer appointed David Bridgman and Colin McCloy of PwC as administrators, saying attempts to recapitalise the business had been unsuccessful. The retailer's board also sought to sell the business outright, or find a new cornerstone shareholder. The administration should allow Postie Plus to keep trading so it can be sold as a going concern.

A company developing one of New Zealand's biggest, most intensive affordable housing estates has been put in receivership. More than 420 apartments and townhouses are planned for the Springpark estate on a 10.5ha site in Auckland's Mt Wellington and the first stage of the development is expected to be completed next year, The New Zealand Herald reported. Springpark is seen as an affordable homes project, with townhouses in stage one priced from $399,000 to $554,000. Most of stage one has already sold.

A sawmill company with about 400 employees and about $100 million in annual sales has been placed in receivership, Stuff.co.nz reported. Brendan Gibson and Michael Stiassny, of KordaMentha, were this afternoon appointed as receivers of Dunedin-headquartered Southern Cross Forest Products. The company has four sites in Mosgiel, Milton, Balclutha and Milburn around Dunedin and another site in Thames. In 2012, the last figures available, the company generated revenue of just under $95m.

The Financial Markets Authority has dropped civil proceedings against four Lombard directors as the failed finance company's receivers have reached a $10 million settlement with the men, their insurers and an unnamed "third party", The New Zealand Herald reported. The receivers had made civil claims against the directors for alleged breach of duties but announced today a settlement had been reached.

The liquidators for the Ross Asset Management group of companies found to be a Ponzi scheme are in talks with three former investors over about $3.8 million of payments they received in the two years leading up to the group's eventual collapse last year, The New Zealand Herald reported. PwC's John Fisk and David Bridgman are looking at transactions they might be able to reverse as they seek to claw back as much of the $100 million to $115 million that was lost in the fraudulent scheme for some 1,200 investors.

NZAX-listed tourism marketing company Jasons Travel Media has suspended trading after being placed in receivership and breaching stock exchange listing rules, The Dominion Post reported. The company, which distributes travel information in print and online, said that given the company's rapidly deteriorating financial position, the unlikely prospects of a recovery in the short term, and the consequential need to protect creditors and preserve the assets of the company, the board had asked ANZ to appoint a receiver.

A fall in the number of first-home buyers in the housing market is an issue in Australia as well, which suggests rising prices are to blame, rather than the Reserve Bank's mortgage restrictions, says Finance Minister Bill English, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Reserve Bank and Government have come under fire over the loan-to-value ratio (LVR) limits on buyers with less than a 20 per cent deposit which took effect at the beginning of October, with critics saying they are hitting new home building and forcing first-home buyers out of the market.