Credit crunch hits another Wensley firm

Another company in Invercargill property developer Ross Wensley's Queenstown empire has been placed into liquidation.

New Zealand Resorts Limited was placed in the hands of Auckland-based liquidators Lloyd Hayward and Jeffrey Meltzer on February 10.

It was placed into liquidation by the High Court in Invercargill after an application was lodged by a disgruntled investor entitled to guaranteed returns.

Mr Wensley's developments have been hit hard by the credit crunch and a drop in apartment prices.

Last year Mr Wensley travelled to the United Kingdom to chase money owed by people who had bought apartments at the Marina Baches complex in Queenstown, leaving his company $23 million out of pocket.

Mr Hayward yesterday told The Southland Times New Zealand Resorts consisted of some of the unsold apartments from The Club development, which was placed into voluntary liquidation last year.

Unsecured creditors were owed $299,909 and were unlikely to get their money back because the company was broke, he said.

Apartments owned by secured creditors were valued at $14.5 million, but they would be responsible for selling the properties themselves, Mr Hayward said.

"There's not a lot I can do. It's the same as the others, they're all in the same position; they've been pulled down by the credit crunch and a substantial drop in (the) value of apartments," he said.

"Ultimately, the company is totally insolvent and it can't even pay what was owed to that unsecured creditor. There's just no money there."

However, Mr Hayward was perplexed at the behaviour of creditors who had placed Wensley companies into liquidation as they did not seem to be keen to pursue the matter after that.

"To be frank, there hasn't been a lot of correspondence with creditors at all. All they seem to do is want to get the company into liquidation and then walk away from it."

Ross Wensley declined to comment yesterday.

His son Greg Wensley, who is the director of New Zealand Premium Properties, which is trying to sell the Marina apartments to the Asian market, also declined to comment.

IN LIQUIDATION

Wensley companies placed in liquidation: wWensley Developments The Club: November 2008 (initiated by shareholders) wWensley Developments: July 2009 (voluntary liquidation) wWensley Developments The Beacon (voluntary liquidation) wWensley Developments The Shore (initiated by creditor) wNew Zealand Resorts Ltd: February 2010 (initiated by investor)

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