New Zealand

Three companies connected with Christchurch developer David Henderson have been put into liquidation at the High Court in Christchurch, The National Business Review reported. Associate Judge Rob Osbourne has granted applications to liquidate Montecristo Construction Ltd, Te Anau Ventures Ltd and Tomanovich Holdings over debts amounting to about $900,000 (excluding costs) owed to March Construction Ltd.

Investors in a finance company chaired by former New Zealand Finance Minister Ruth Richardson are being told not to expect all their money back. The IMP Diversified Income Fund entered into a moratorium agreement with investors in June last year promising to make a full repayment to debenture holders. The company owed $16.5 million to debenture and capital noteholders at the time, and has since paid back 40c in the dollar.

Failed property financier Strategic Finance has reported an audited annual loss of NZ$175 million for the year to June 30, just six weeks after predicting a full year loss of NZ$98 million, The New Zealand Herald reported.

DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and Julius Baer Holding AG are among potential buyers of ING Groep NV’s private banking operations, three people familiar with the matter said. Amsterdam-based ING, the biggest Dutch financial-services company, is seeking at least $1.8 billion for the assets, two of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity, Bloomberg reported. DBS, ANZ Bank and Julius Baer are among companies picked by ING to enter final bidding for its Asian and Swiss private banking units as early as next week, they said.

The company developing the $300 million Fiji Beach Resort & Spa managed by Hilton says it is on the verge of going into receivership, The New Zealand Herald reported. Neville Mahon, Auckland-based developer of the huge luxury property, has written to villa owners saying receivership of Denarau Investments is imminent. Bank Of Scotland (BoS) and Auckland finance company Strategic had funded the project. Mahon says he has been unable to pay dozens of investors who bought villas at his Hilton Denarau Island project, planned to be eventually expanded and called Fiji Hilton.

The threat of receivership hanging over embattled finance company St Laurence Ltd probably won't spill over to St Laurence Property & Finance Ltd, according to Kevin Podmore, a director of both companies, The New Zealand Herald reported. Podmore is in talks with the trustee for St Laurence Ltd., Perpetual Trust, to try to stave off receivership amid concern the company won't be able to meet the terms of its moratorium. Some 9,000 investors owed NZ$250 million in frozen funds last year agreed to give the company until 2013 to repay 70 per cent of its debentures.

Several bidders threw their hats in the ring for the business of troubled eftpos company ProvencoCadmus including a group led by existing shareholder Peter Maire, The New Zealand Herald reported. But yesterday rival eftpos provider SmartPay announced it had purchased the Australian and New Zealand payments operations of ProvencoCadmus for an undisclosed sum. ProvencoCadmus was placed in receivership on August 3 owing $45 million to its bankers and capital note holders.

Merchant services provider SmartPay has bought the payments division of eftpos company ProvencoCadmus after it fell into receivership earlier this month, The National Business Review reported. The purchase includes all of ProvencoCadmus’ New Zealand and Australian payments operations, transactional business and all intellectual property relating to payments. Unsustainable debt, lack of investment capital and a weaker than expected trading performance in its retail automation business saw ProvencoCadmus go into receivership on August 4.

Heavily indebted New Zealand dairy farmers face a financial "perfect storm" and many could go under, finance experts warn. Dairy farms are especially vulnerable as farmers face falling commodity prices, increased costs and some farm asset values had dropped by 30 to 40 percent, The National Business Review reported. There were a lot of stressed farmers running significant cash deficits this year, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Roger Wilson told The Press.

Jobless numbers have made the highest quarterly jump for more than 20 years as the recession finally translated into mass job losses, The National Business Review reported. The number of unemployed jumped from 5% to 6% of the workforce in the June quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force Survey released this morning. The rise was well above average market economists' expectations of a jump to 5.6%. It was also the largest quarterly increase since September 1988, which was in the depths of the long 1987-92 recession.