Metropolis apartments up on block after foreign investors' loan default

By Christine Nikiel

Friday 12th April 2002

THE METROPOLIS: Apartments up for auction

Financial company Harts Contributory Mortgages has been forced to put 11 Metropolis apartments up for auction after its multimillion-dollar deal with a group of Indonesian investors went sour.

Susila Investment Ltd, believed to be a family company with diverse international investments, defaulted on its $3.5 million loan for 11 apartments including Penthouse 3402, forcing Harts to sell.

Susila has no New Zealand office at which to serve a Property Law Act notice, so earlier this year Harts applied to the High Court for an "order of substituted service." This was effectively a recognition by the court that notice had been served.

Harts was bought by listed financial services company Dorchester Pacific Finance in November last year as part of a package negotiated with Harts' receivers.

Dorchester Pacific had no liability to Harts' investors and was just helping investors recover their capital on a best endeavours basis, chief executive Brent King said.

The advertisements had received a promising response so far but it was too early to ascertain what kind of price the apartments would get at auction, Mr King said.

The Indonesian company had not given any reason for its failure to pay, he said.

The Metropolis has 345 serviced apartments and 21 penthouse apartments on the top four levels. Four penthouse apartments were sold last week.

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