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Serepisos bankrupted after court knocks back 11th hour play for time

Monday 26th September 2011 4 Comments

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Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos was bankrupted in the High Court in Wellington today after Associate Judge David Gendall knocked back yet another bid to play for more time.

Judge Gendall granted an application by South Canterbury Finance, owed some $22.5 million, to declare Serepisos bankrupt after he failed to convince the court to grant him four more days to secure funding from a Hong Kong-based merchant bank.

SCF replaced FM Custodians last month. Counsel for Serepisos, John Billington, unsuccessfully requested four more days to let a new credit facility enter the banking system.

Judge Gendall said the loan, which was to be paid in two tranches of US$5 million and US$15 million, wasn’t enough to cover SCF’s loan, and because it was being paid to Century City Trust, an entity not facing liquidation proceedings, could still be drawn down or used as the basis to file an application overturning the bankruptcy.

The bid was “unsatisfactory given the 11th hour provision of this information,” Judge Gendall said. “There’s no doubt the debtor has committed an act of bankruptcy.”

SCF and supporting creditor Equitable Mortgages opposed the last minute bid, with counsel for both creditors saying the terms for the last adjournment were not met.

Last month, Serepisos was granted adjournment to put forward a proposal to creditors that would sell down his property portfolio in an orderly fashion, in a bid to meet the entirety of the $204 million owed to his lenders.

The portfolio, made up of some 150 residential properties and more than six commercial buildings, was valued at $232.5 million.

However, the proposal wasn’t advanced as Serepisos sought refinancing to help restructure his business, Billington told the court. The new facility was sourced from an unnamed merchant bank in Hong Kong.

Judge Gendall awarded costs to SCF and Equitable Mortgages on a 2B basis.

Last week, Serepisos relinquished his licence for the Wellington Phoenix Football club in Australia’s A-League, and promised reporters they would be surprised by events this week. The Phoenix licence was taken over by a consortium of Wellington businessmen.

An application by the Dominion Post for court documents was delayed to give the Official Assignee time to lodge its own memorandum on what information would be commercially sensitive.

BusinessDesk.co.nz



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Comments from our readers

On 26 September 2011 at 12:51 pm Siena said:
Kiaora. The 'End has reached it's Nigh' and I see by the last statement that the Dominion Post are still hell bent on poking their noses into the life of Mr. Terry Serepisos - They even have a Terry Serepisos LINK When is harassment, harassment? What is obtaining "court documents" going to achieve? Dompost have achieved their aim through their negative and intrusive articles - I wonder how many of these people have 'Dirty Laundry'? He has paid the price publicly...Time to leave him alone to be with his whanau.
On 26 September 2011 at 10:57 pm Matt said:
I think Terry has done a lot for NZ - it's a shame he is bankrupt (although I'm not one of his creditors). It felt like the media were just waiting for him to fall..
On 27 September 2011 at 10:32 am Ivan said:
Its a shame that a man has gone broke just so he could say he owned a money losing soccer team.
On 29 September 2011 at 9:19 am David Clulee said:
If Serepisos assets are worth $240-$250 million as pubished recently in the Dom Post and his debts around $200 million then he's still a wealthy man.
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