Property investment company St Laurence has been placed in receivership by its trustee a day after the company put forward an alternative debt for "equity" swap, The National Business Review reported. Perpetual Trust has appointed Barry Jordan and David Vance of Deloitte as receivers of St Laurence, which owes 9,000 investors $245 million. The move to receivership comes after St Laurence indicated yesterday it was insolvent and could no longer meet its scheduled moratorium payments to investors.

The board of finance company St Laurence Limited have told its investors that either they vote to swap their debt for shares, or the company will go into receivership, nzherald.co.nz reported. Some 9,000 investors owed NZ$250 million in frozen funds agreed to give the company until 2013 to repay 70 per cent of its debentures. A meeting has now been called where these same investors will be asked to exchange their debenture stock and capital notes for shares in St Laurence holdings - the company set up to acquire the finance company's assets.

The trend by banks in Australia to wind up small businesses that have fallen behind is likely to take off in New Zealand, a business turnaround specialist says, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. Trevor Thornton, of accounting firm Grant Thornton New Zealand, said Australian banks were starting to stop supporting small businesses "nursed for a couple of years", but now late with their repayments. "It would seem only a matter of time before banks on this side of the Tasman start to lose patience with companies that have not been able to effectively rehabilitate themselves," Mr Thornton said.

Forest Enterprises Australia Ltd (FEA) has entered voluntary administration, with the troubled timber plantations operator bemoaning a supposed lack of patience among its bankers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on an Australian Associated Press story. FEA, which had expected to report an operating loss for the half year ended December 31, 2009, said on Wednesday that its revenue over the past 18 months had been hurt by the impact of the global financial crisis on markets for forestry investment, timber and export wood fibre.

The Securities Commission says there may be more legal action against four Lombard Finance and Investments directors, including former National Party cabinet minister Sir Douglas Graham, Radio New Zealand reported. Sir Douglas and the other directors, former Labour Party cabinet minister, Bill Jeffries, Michael Reeves, and Lawrence Bryant face penalties of up to $500,000 each for allegedly misleading investors. The civil action by the Securities Commission comes two years after Lombard Finance was placed into receivership, owing $127 million to about 4400 investors.

High profile dairy farmer Allan Crafar says he will stay on his family land at Reporoa, despite an offer from receivers that was due to expire at the end of today, The New Zealand Herald reported. It was not clear whether that meant the end of the business day, however it appeared that the property was still being used by the family at around 6pm this evening. A spokesman for receivers KordaMentha said they were following a process but would not provide any further details.

It will be at least another 10 weeks before the Crafar farms creditors know if they will see any cash from a proposed Chinese acquisition, The National Business Review reported. The Overseas Investment Office has requested more information from Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings and asked it to resubmit its application to buy the Crafar family properties, placed in receivership in October last year, owing more than $200 million to lenders Rabobank and Westpac.

Another New Zealand finance company has gone into receivership, triggering a repayment to its investors under the Crown retail deposit guarantee, The National Business Review reported. Vision Securities, specialising in property finance for the retirement village sector, has been placed into receivership, close to $30 million. Its directors sought receivership from its trustee, Perpetual Trust, after failing to settle a major loan last week and concern for the company’s liquidity.

The directors of biotechnology company Botry-Zen Ltd have resigned, saying there is unlikely to be any assets remaining once receivers have finished their job, The National Business Review reported. "The board again expresses its disappointment that, due to a lack of capital, it was unable to see to fruition the good work done, and investment made, by many people over a number of years." The directors said their resignation would be effective from March 30. The biotechnology company, which was floated on the New Zealand share market in 1991, was placed in receivership in December.