(16 March 2010 – New Zealand) Finance company Strategic Finance Limited (SFL) was put into receivership at the end of last week owing NZ$417 million (A$320 million) to its 13,000 investors; becoming the second largest New Zealand finance company failure since 2007.PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) partners John Fisk and Colin McCloy have been appointed receivers of Strategic Finance Limited (SFL) and related companies Strategic Advisory Limited, Strategic Mortgages Limited, Strategic Nominees Limited, and Strategic Nominees Australia Limited.
The companies’ trustee, Perpetual Trust Limited, appointed receivers after SFL failed to generate sufficient loan recoveries for its milestone payment on 7 January, 2010.
In January, SFL also announced its total loan book value had fallen below 75 percent of the aggregate principal monies owed to debenture holders, depositors and subordinated note holders.
PWC partner, John Fisk, said in a statement that the firm will be talking to key stakeholders over the next few days to determine the best way forward. As receivers of SFL, PWC understands the uncertainty the recent situation has caused to investors and believe the receivership will now provide greater certainty.
PWE is working as quickly as possible to determine the best option going forward to ensure maximised funds are distributed to investors, Mr Fisk added.
The failure of SFL is the second largest finance company to go into receivership since the onset of the global financial crisis, in 2007 Bridecorp collapsed owing over NZ$450 million.