Fiji

Hanover Finance's loan to Fijian resort Vatulele has proved disastrous for Allied Farmers with ASB Bank calling in the receivers, The New Zealand Herald reported. The multimillion-dollar loan on the resort, a popular winter destination for New Zealanders and Australians, has been in default for more than two years. ASB, which lent to the project, pulled the plug last week. An Allied Farmers subsidiary is the second secured lender after ASB.

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.

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.