The Treasury will begin paying out investors in failed Mutual Finance under the Crown guarantee two months after the company was placed in receivership, The National Business Review reported. Covenant Trustee appointed Grant Graham and Brendon Gibson of KordaMentha as Mutual Finance's receivers in July. Mutual owed 340 depositors $9.3 million. In a report released today, the receivers say they have verified the investor register, enabling the Treasury to begin its payout process. Mutual had a loan and asset book of $8.23 million at the time of receivership.

Feltex's liquidator, McDonald Vague, is pushing ahead with its court case against five former directors of the failed carpet maker, spurred on by admissions made in the case the five recently won against the Registrar of Companies, The New Zealand Herald reported. McDonald Vague director Iain McLennan said the Registrar of Companies case, including a district court trial, had been watched closely. ANZ, owed A$119.5 million, ran out of patience with the company's board and tipped Feltex into receivership on September 22, 2006 with McGrathNicol appointed receivers.

Just over half of Auckland's five-star Westin will be off-limits to guests after a fight between receivers and suite owners, The New Zealand Herald reported. Out-of-pocket investors fear receivers might disconnect electricity, phone, television and access to their rooms. Westin, the international hotel operator, will lose control of 110 of the 170 rooms at the Lighter Quay hotel. Graham Wilkinson, a hospitality expert representing owner/investors of 110 units, said his group was extremely disappointed.

Diversified industrial company Scales Corporation is unaffected by the receivership of its parent South Canterbury Finance (SCF), it said yesterday, The National Business Review reported. SCF was placed into receivership today after failing to strike a deal with new investors. Scales, which posted an unaudited $10.1m pretax operating profit for the year ending June 30, was one of the bright spots on SCF's books, along with Helicopters NZ and Dairy Holdings.

New Zealand's government has provided NZ$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) to protect depositors of collapsed South Canterbury Finance and extended a loan of NZ$175 million to the group's receivers to pay off debt, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Privately-owned South Canterbury, one of New Zealand's largest finance companies, announced on Tuesday it could not meet an end-of-the-day deadline to secure new capital and called in receivers.

Former glamour funder Strategic Finance, whose directors include ex-All Black captain Jock Hobbs, is in the red to the tune of a shocking $195.5 million, grim news for 13,000 investors, The New Zealand Herald reported. A bleak report issued on the doomed Strategic Finance - in receivership and liquidation - by John Cregten and Andrew McKay of liquidators Corporate Finance revealed the huge deficit which they said was still subject to the cost of receivership and liquidation. The final amount might be more.

Leading political and economic commentators are reminding New Zealanders that a receivership of South Canterbury Finance could actually have positive effects for the economy, TVNZ reported. Brian Gaynor, of Milford Asset Management, said today that he was not "too concerned" about the option of a receivership through statutory management. "There's a lot of nervousness about statutory management or receivership, but the thing about this company is that nearly every investor is covered by a government guarantee so they get their money back.

South Canterbury Finance - potentially facing a $1.7 billion receivership tomorrow - yesterday remained hopeful last-minute negotiations would deliver an 11th-hour lifeline to the southern lending giant, the Otago Daily News reported. The Government's role appears increasingly crucial: to pick up part of the debt this week or let South Canterbury Finance sink and pick up the pieces in the months ahead. An outright $1.7 billion receivership of mainly southern-based loans - and subsequent asset fire sales - would have a devastating effect on the South Island's economy.

Allied Farmers is having to renegotiate the terms of its bank facility with Westpac following the receivership of its subsidiary Allied Nationwide Finance, The National Business Review reported. Allied Farmers, which took over the stricken Hanover finance loan book last December, was granted an extension on the Westpac facilities until March next year. However, the receivership of Allied Nationwide has meant that the milestones for the agreed debt terms, including debt retirement and a restructuring initiative, will require renegotiation, the company said in a statement.

The sale of financially-troubled East Coast-based vegetable processor Cedenco Foods to a Japanese company has been approved by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO), The National Business Review reported. Despite being one of New Zealand's biggest fruit and vegetable processors, Cedenco was put into receivership by ANZ National Bank last November, after it defaulted on $46 million owed to the bank and $4.7m to unsecured creditors.