The future of the Unanderra-based Wideform Group of Companies is up in the air with suggestions that a major bank lender may be pulling back support for the business, the Illawarra Mercury reported. The Australian Financial Review (AFR) today reported that the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group was believed to have sought to facilitate a process whereby the business would go into voluntary administration and a new owner would be found.

New Zealand’s South Canterbury Finance is trying to recover $10 million by selling Wanaka's largest resort but the resort's owner believes his financier will be lucky to get half that, The Southland Times reported. Six companies associated with Oakridge Resort were put into receivership by South Canterbury Finance in September after defaulting on loan repayments. Oakridge developer Par Hallberg, who moved to Australia after losing control of the resort, confirmed his companies owed $10.49 million to the finance company.

Iain Pero, the brother of Mike Pero Mortgages founder Mike, has confirmed he is the new owner of flight simulator business Flight Experience, The New Zealand Herald reported. Pero and one of Flight Experience's founders, Russell Hubber, have joined forces to buy the business out of receivership. However, the original shareholders, including Mike Pero, will be left out of pocket. The receivers of Flight Experience Group say there will still be a "significant shortfall" in funds after the sale. The company was put into receivership this month by ASB Bank, which is owed $4 million.

Finance company Boston Finance, one of the many currently in a moratorium, has been finally put into receivership, The New Zealand Herald reported. Grant Graham and Brendon Gibson of KordaMentha have been appointed receivers, formally ending its moratorium arrangement which has been in place since March last year. Today's move was widely expected.

Tomato processing company Cedenco Foods Australia has been placed into receivership but its processing facility will operate as usual, the Brisbane Times reported. This comes after Cedenco Foods in New Zealand was placed in receivership. The company continues to trade pending a sale of the business. ANZ Banking Group NZ subsidiary, ANZ National Bank, said on Monday that it had put receivers into Cedenco Foods. Announcing the move, ANZ National said it had committed seasonal funding to the receivers to allow Cedenco to continue to trade.

New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to a nine-year high of 6.5 percent in the September quarter, from 6 percent in the previous three months, The National Business Review reported. The number of people unemployed reached its highest level in 15 years, rising 12,000 or 9 percent during the September quarter to reach 150,000. The rise in the unemployment rate was slightly above expectations, with the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists having been for a rise to 6.4 percent.

Iain Pero, the brother of Mike Pero Mortgages founder Mike, is in the running to pick up the assets of failed flight simulator business Flight Experience Group, The New Zealand Herald reported. Flight Experience was put in receivership last week by its bankers, owed $4 million. The Christchurch startup manufactures and sells flight simulators for pilot training and entertainment. It has six outlets around the country plus sites in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company was placed in voluntary administration by its owners last month.

The Blue Mountain Lumber mill in Otago is closing, with the owner citing the high New Zealand dollar and a fall in domestic demand as the reasons, The National Business Review reported. The mill at Conical Hill near Tapanui is owned by Winstone Pulp International (WPI), itself a subsidiary of Malaysian company Ernslaw One Ltd. At a meeting of staff today WPI managing director David Anderson said there was regrettably no option left other than to close. The mill was originally built in 1949 by the state-owned Forest Service.

Former Blue Chip boss Mark Bryers is now a bankrupt, The New Zealand Herald reported. By his own estimation, the founder of the failed investment scheme owes a long list of creditors $173 million. Lawyers representing eight of those creditors, collectively owed $85 million, lined up before Associate Judge David Robinson in the High Court at Auckland yesterday to hear the bankruptcy adjudication. Bryers had made an eleventh hour attempt to have the proceedings adjourned by offering a proposal for repaying his debts.

Luxury New Zealand hotel and spa Hotel du Vin has been sold to Dilworth School for an undisclosed figure and is to be converted into a rural campus, The New Zealand Herald reported. The private boys' school yesterday revealed it was the winning bidder in a tender process for the hotel, which was placed in receivership in July after suffering from declining guest numbers. Dilworth Trust Board chairman Derek Firth said it would reconfigure the hotel and spa buildings to make them suitable for school use and expected to open the campus in 2012.