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.

The taxpayer will be called on to foot the bill for any shortfall after Allied Nationwide Finance was put into receivership late Friday afternoon, The National Business Review reported. The company – a subsidiary of NZX-listed Allied Farmers, which took over the assets and loans of Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin’s Hanover finance companies, was operating under the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme. The company has about $137 million worth of debentures on issue. Kerryn Downey and Andrew Grenfell of McGrath Nicol were appointed receivers.

Allied Nationwide Finance says it missed paying maturing debentures yesterday and needs more time to remedy breaches of its trust deed, The National Business Review reported. The finance company said it expected to make good its investor payments today but needed an extension to a 14-day deadline set by Guardian Trust (NZGT) to comply with financial ratios. The deadline expired last night. Until yesterday, Allied Nationwide had continued to meet its obligations, including repayment of maturing debentures, the company said.

The destruction of the old Hanover debenture holders' wealth will continue if Allied Farmers' planned $19 million equity raising ever makes it off the ground, The Dominion Post reported in a commentary. The temporary delay announced this week in Allied Farmers' capital raising shows what a tightrope the company is walking, trying to placate bankers, trustees and underwriters. It has to fix its core debt problem and problems with its finance company with only limited access to new capital.

The Breakers restaurant chain plans to continue expanding, despite the receivership of two related firms, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. The franchise firm will soon open Breakers Cafe and Bar sites in Gisborne and Dannevirke, and look to head to the South Island. National franchising manager Simon Withnall said yesterday that Breakers New Zealand Franchising Ltd, owned by Mark and Penny Burt, was not adversely affected by two other Burt firms going into receivership.

Investors in failed finance company Strategic Finance are to get their first payout since the company was placed in receivership, TVNZ reported. Receivers PricewaterhouseCooper announced a payout next month of between 1.5 and 2.5 cents in the dollar to approximately 13,000 investors. Strategic Finance and its associated companies went into moratorium two years ago owing investors around $400 million dollars. In March this year, they were placed into receivership with their loan books estimated at $229 million.

Lombard Finance and Investments' receiver has advised of a further payment to investors and is sticking to an estimate of a final payout in the 15 to 24 per cent range, The New Zealand Herald reported. Secured debenture holders received 6.5c in the dollar last December. A further three cents in the dollar would be paid on Thursday or close to that date, the receiver PricewaterhouseCooper said. The receivers said the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had yet to finalise its claims in the receiverships.

Christchurch developer David Henderson has been granted a stay to fight a court order to liquidate his flagship company, Property Ventures, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. The company, of which Henderson is a director, owes Inland Revenue at least $88,734 in tax, which it failed to pay between September 2008 and February 2010.

The poolside villas, the beachfront location, the warm tropical air - it should be paradise. But for 240 investors in the Hilton on Fiji's Denarau Island, the past 18 months have been more like purgatory. Some forced to mortgagee sale would probably describe it as hell, The New Zealand Herald reported. Now the trouble in paradise has escalated to the point where owners are about to put padlocks on their villas, potentially disrupting the holiday plans of hundreds at the peak of Fiji's tourism season.

Trade finisher Fastfold will be "a force to be reckoned with" after being brought out of receivership by new owners, ProPrint reported. Grant Allen, manager of the Auckland-based firm, said the response from clients since Fastfold's re-opening had given strong reason to believe the company had "a bright future". "The economy is slowly starting to come out of its recession. So, if you can get in on the ground floor now, you have a strong chance of doing well," added Allen.