Fashion chain Jean Jones has gone into receivership, with the loss of four stores, The New Zealand Herald reported. The remaining 14 stores will continue to operate while receivers Deloitte, who took control of the company last Thursday, found a buyer for the chain. Spokesperson Mike Horne said that while the receivers were still reviewing the company's position, it appeared the basic business model was viable and its problems were primarily caused by factors outside the business.

Ten million dollars' worth of trade with the Chatham Islands could be lost following the receivership of a Timaru shipping company, Stuff.co.nz reported on a Taranaki Daily News story. Black Robin Freighters went into receivership last week with BDO Christchurch notifying the receivership on Saturday. In August Black Robin Freighters director Kelvyn Leslie raised concerns there would not be enough business to support two shipping services, after Auckland-based 44 South Shipping launched a twice-monthly service to the Chathams.

The muddy big 1.33-hectare hole that is the failed $250 million Soho Square development in Auckland's Ponsonby could soon be alive with construction crews, with first mortgagee United States hedge fund Fortress cleared by the High Court to buy the site, Stuff.co.nz reported on a Dominion Post story.

The receivers for South Canterbury Finance have appointed a leading investment bank as sale advisor for specific investment assets, The National Business Review reported. Kerryn Downey and William Black of McGrathNicol, said Goldman Sachs & Partners New Zealand Limited will assist in selling 100% of Helicopters (NZ) and a majority shareholding in apple exporter Scales Corporation. Both companies are separate from the core finance business of the SCF Group. Goldman Sachs & Partners is the New Zealand-owned local branch of the global investment bank.

Allan Crafar likened his bank to a "dog being dragged along on the end of a chain" during his testimony in a High Court case in Auckland yesterday over ownership of cows on farms now in receivership, Stuff.co.nz reported on a Dominion Post article. The case concerns ownership of 4000 heifers sold by a Crafar Farms company and leased back via agri-finance company Stock Co to another company owned by Mr Crafar's son, Robert Crafar.

Battling financier and rural services provider Allied Farmers has repaid its term loan facility with Westpac in full and reached agreement on outstanding debt to collapsed subsidiary Allied Nationwide Finance, The National Business Review reported. The company repaid the loan out of proceeds from the sale of former Hanover and United Finance assets acquired last December.

Serious Fraud Office chief executive Adam Feeley has confirmed transactions disclosed in the National Business Review concerning South Canterbury Finance's murky involvement in the Auckland Hyatt Regency hotel are part of the investigation his office launched this morning. Mr Feeley said the suspect loans stretched back to 2005, but the timeframe could be stretched as his investigation progressed. The NBR reported in last weeks' print edition that South Canterbury's financial interest in the Hyatt began in 2002.

The Treasury estimates the receivership of South Canterbury Finance could take up to four years to complete, unless sold as a going concern, with the majority of assets being sold only in the second year of receivership, The National Business Review reported. The estimates are given in a report dated September 1 – at the same time as other documents revealed the government’s reasons for rejecting a post receivership offer to buy SCF as a going concern. That offer reportedly came from investor Duncan Saville and was understood to be worth approximately $1.3 billion.

Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe says decisions made to reject bids for South Canterbury Finance (SCF) means the cost to taxpayers has been between $300 million and $500 million too much, The New Zealand Herald reported. SCF went into receivership at the end of August, leading to a $1.7 billion government payout to investors, of which $1.6 billion was under the retail deposit guarantee scheme.

Chinese investors who have applied to buy the Crafar family's dairy farmers from receivers say they think the purchase will be allowed by regulators at the Overseas Investment Office, The National Business Review reported. Natural Dairy NZ Holdings Ltd has applied to buy the 80% it does not already own in UBNZ Assets Holdings Ltd as part of the planned purchase of 16 North Island farms owned by the Crafars and put into receivership 12 months ago, when debts topped $200 million. The 8615ha of dairy farms, mostly in the North Island, run about 25,000 dairy cattle.