Voluntary liquidation for The Joneses

High profile real estate firm The Joneses has gone into voluntary liquidation.

The news follows a statement earlier today that The Joneses had pulled the plug at the last moment on its planned sharemarket listing.

Arron Heath and Mike Lamacraft of Meltzer Mason Heath have been appointed liquidators.

The company, which had a meeting set in Auckland for Wednesday to formalise the listing on New Zealand Exchange's alternative market, said this morning it had been unable to raise between $1.5 million and $4 million that it needed for the listing to proceed.

The volatility in global capital markets was blamed. It had been planned for the Joneses parent company to engineer a reverse listing through shell company RLV No 3.

A director of The Joneses' parent company TJRE Holdings, Chris Taylor, said in a statement that alternative funding had been explored, but this was not enough to continue to fund the business.

Mr Taylor said the outcome was "hugely disappointing". The directors and managers of The Joneses would work with the liquidator to ensure minimal disruption for existing customers. There was no risk to sale and purchase deposits as these were "ringfenced" in a trust account.

Mr Taylor had only weeks ago expressed confidence the listing would proceed, even though the markets were in turmoil.

"I don't think it is going to be a significant factor," he said said last month.

Through its offices in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin The Joneses offered fixed fee services, charging customers $8995 to sell houses as opposed to the normal percentage commission.

The company had talked of rapidly expanding its number of offices and its belief of how its fixed-fee approach would be the future of the real estate industry.

In an independent report on the proposed listing, advisers WHK Corporate Finance, said the reverse takeover and valuation was fair for RLV shareholders.

They pointed out, however, that funding was "urgently required" while The Joneses was in its development phase. A statement of financial position provided by the company showed that liabilities were in excess of tangible assets as at November 30.

Mr Taylor said today that while initial responses from investors around Christmas and New Year had been positive, investor sentiment appeared to have turned much more cautious recently, with the combined fall in equity markets and property prices taking their toll.

- © Fairfax NZ News