Wynyard managers squeezes just $2.8 mln in pre-liquidation asset sales

Thursday 9th March 2017

The voluntary administrators for Wynyard Group raised just $2.8 million from selling the failed crime investigation software developer's assets in the lead-up to its liquidation last month.

A report by voluntary administrators Neale Jackson and Grant Graham of KodaMentha show the New Zealand trading entity Wynyard (NZ) had almost $2 million of cash on hand at the time of their appointment on Oct. 25, a further $2.8 million was raised from selling assets, while pre-administration tax refunds and debtor receipts totalled another $310,000.

Before liquidators were appointed last month, Jackson and Graham sold Wynyard's Cognevo business to Australia's Telstra and Canada's Resolver bought the local software firm's risk management suite of products.

Of the $5.1 million of receipts in the period, the receivers were paid $659,000, salaries and wages reached $498,000 and legal fees of almost $425,000, were the largest expenses that saw the administrators pay $2.7 million. That left $2.3 million once Wynyard's creditors appointed liquidators on Feb. 8.

Wynyard (NZ) had 108 priority creditors owed $2.1 million as at Feb. 8, and another 224 unsecured creditors owed $177.9 million who ultimately voted to liquidate the group of companies. Wynyard Group, the parent company, owed ASB Bank $75,000, and had $209,000 of cash on hand at the time of Jackson and Graham's appointment in October.

The KordaMentha pair were later appointed liquidators, and in their first report in that role, they valued Wynyard (NZ)'s total assets at $24.9 million, of which $15.9 million was attributed to software assets, and $6 million in related party receivables. Of the $179.9 million in total liabilities, some $171 million was owed to Wynyard Group, with $6.7 million to other unsecured creditors.

Jackson said they were pursuing sale opportunities for the ACA (advanced crimes analytics) product, which was the last product stream still to be realised, and were also investigating whether there were voidable transactions and/or breaches of duty that could be pursued.

Wynyard was listed on the NZX, raising $65 million in an initial public offering at $1.15 a share, though it kept just $26 million to fund its plans for expansion, with the remainder paying out Jade for the intellectual property and covering outstanding debt. They last traded at 21.5 cents, valuing Wynyard at $38.5 million.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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