Structured Finance, hurt by the failure of Auckland's Westin Hotel, convinced its trustee to hold off on receivership after a trust deed breach, buying time to squeeze more value from its loan book, Stuff.co.nz reported. The firm triggered a review event when total tangible assets fell below 80 per cent of aggregated repayments due, its accounts for the year ended March 31 show. Perpetual Trust, the trustee for holders of $33 million of debentures covered by a moratorium, has allowed Structured Finance to continue trading in the belief investors will get more back that way.

Allied Farmers’ auditor has been unable to verify the company’s financial statements and cannot form an opinion on its going concern status, The National Business Review reported. PricewaterhouseCoopers issued a heavily qualified opinion on Allied’s financial statements in the rural services and finance company’s annual report released to the market this morning. The auditor said there was insufficient evidence to verify whether the company would be able to generate sufficient cashflows from its funding initiatives to qualify a going concern assumption.

Another Marlborough wine company is in receivership and one unsecured creditor has predicted it will be only a month before his company suffers the same fate, The Marlborough Express reported. Otuwhero Estate Wines, based in the Awatere Valley, was put into the management of Deloitte partner Grant Jarrold, of Christchurch, on Monday. Mr Jarrold said he was still assessing options for the company. Otuwhero operations director Michael Davison, of Clifford Bay near Blenheim, would not comment.

New Zealanders are continuing to turn their backs on credit in an effort to pay off their debts, credit bureau Veda Advantage said, The National Business Review reported. "Consumer appetite for credit is down, people are moving to consolidate debt and mainstream banks are, in part, stepping into the void left by the finance companies via personal loans," managing director John Roberts said. Veda believes the most significant shift in people's attitudes to credit in the last 20 years is under way. There was a "radical change" in the lending market, Mr Roberts said.

The Westin Hotel is "making the best of a bad situation" as a dispute between the owners and receivers of the hotel's management company rumbles on during one of its busiest booking weeks of the year, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Westin is doing a fraction of its normal trade and has had to turn away several NZ Fashion Week guests after half of the hotel was made off limits earlier this month. Owners are seeking to cancel the leases of a further 19 rooms at the five star hotel in the next two weeks.

More than $1 million in gold and silver bullion has been confiscated from a Hamilton house after English bankruptcy trustees successfully sought a search and seizure order through the New Zealand courts -- a first for a foreign insolvency case on these shores, Voxy reported. The bullion was allegedly hidden from creditors of retired English psychiatrist Alan Geraint Simpson, 68, who was adjudged bankrupt by the High Court of England and Wales in September last year. Steven John Williams was appointed as trustee of Mr Simpson's bankrupt estate in January.

Two more entities established by Allan Hubbard have been placed into statutory management, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Government yesterday put Hubbard Churcher Trust Management and Forresters Nominee Company into management after receiving a recommendation from the Securities Commission. Commerce Minister Simon Power said the decision to add the two companies was a result of the ongoing investigations by the statutory managers who reported their findings to the Securities Commission.

The receivers of South Canterbury Finance say they have received more than 150 inquiries from New Zealand and overseas investors expressing interest in acquiring assets, The National Business Review reported. Kerryn Downey and William Black, of advisory firm McGrathNicol, have invited leading investment banks to submit proposals for advising and assisting them in selling the group's assets. South Canterbury collapsed into receivership last month triggering a $1.6 billion payout to depositors under the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme.

Allied Farmers has slashed its term debt with Westpac to just $1.65 million, The New Zealand Herald reported. The rural and financing company, which reported a year to June 30 loss of $77.6 million on Friday, yesterday said it had dropped its debt from $14.2 million in the last week following two settlements. Allied managing director Rob Alloway said the company was making good progress on reducing its debt and restructuring the business. Allied, which last December acquired the loan book of Hanover and United Finance, has been in talks with Westpac over its funding since June.

The former directors of the failed Five Star group appeared in court this morning on charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office, The National Business Review reported. Marcus Macdonald, Anthony Bowden, Nicholas Kirk and alleged “shadow director” Neill Williams will next appear at the Auckland District Court on October 28 for a post-committal hearing. The SFO has laid more than 100 charges under the Crimes Act against them over related party lending that took place between 2003 and 2007 involving loans worth $50 million, much of which is said to be irrecoverable.