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.

The man behind what is thought to be New Zealand's largest Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison, The New Zealand Herald reported. Wellington financier and former head of the Ross Asset Management group, David Ross, was sentenced in the Wellington District Court by Judge Denys Barry today. Ross had pleaded guilty to five charges brought against him by the Serious Fraud Office, including four for false accounting and one for theft by person in a special relationship.

New Zealand's dairy sector is still highly indebted and vulnerable to a fall in record high commodity prices and rising interest rates, according to the Reserve Bank, The New Zealand Herald reported. High levels of agricultural debt, which is heavily concentrated in the dairy sector, poses a risk to the stability of the financial system, deputy governor Grant Spencer said at today's release of the central bank's six-monthly financial stability report.

Solid Energy has secured its restructuring deal with most of its banks and the Government following a series of meetings today in Christchurch, The New Zealand Herald reported. The state owned coal miner said it received "majority support" from its five bank creditors and note holders at the meetings. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd has not agreed to the deal, but its opposition will not stop it from going ahead. While it had the support of most of its banks, "certain of the arrangements are still subject to legal challenge" Solid Energy said.

Tachikawa Forest Products (NZ), the owner of the Rotorua sawmill tipped into receivership last week, was in breach of its banking covenants for the past two years, and had its 2012 accounts tagged by auditors over a working capital deficit, Scoop.co.nz reported. KordaMentha’s Grant Graham and Brendon Gibson were appointed receivers on Friday, ending the Japanese-owned wood processor’s attempts to regain profitability after successive years of losses that had accumulated to $12.5 million as at Dec. 31.

A move by the Bank of Tokyo to challenge the Solid Energy debt restructuring deal could backfire, leaving the bank being owed even more money, says Finance Minister Bill English, The New Zealand Herald reported. A debt restructuring process aimed at rescuing the struggling state-owned coal miner Solid Energy was announced on October 1. The Auckland branch of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is recorded as the second-largest lender to Solid Energy and is opposing the proposed deal. Last week It lodged proceedings in the High Court in Auckland challenging the process.