Lakeview receivership 'tidying up'

Queenstown apartment developer Ross Wensley's company Lakeview Resorts Ltd has been placed in receivership.

Mr Wensley is the company's sole director and 79.75% shareholder.

Receiver BDO Christchurch was sent questions by email, but did not respond.

Mr Wensley said, when contacted, the Lakeview receivership was ''just part of tidying up various companies'', but declined any further comment on the reason for the receivership.

Mr Wensley is well known around Queenstown, having told the ODT in 2009 he had built an estimated 400 apartments since the mid-1990s in nine projects, including The Club (44), The Shore (84) and The Beacon (77).

In July 2009, his Wensley Developments Ltd, incorporated in 1951, was placed in liquidation by him, owing an estimated $10 million plus at the time.

The company itself was owed more than $20 million from its $37 million, 28-apartment Marina Baches complex in Queenstown, after 20 apartment buyers had failed to settle.

At the time, during the worst of the financial crisis, apartment prices had plunged.

Mr Wensley told the ODT at the time that of the $10 million owed by his company, all but $700,000 was owed to other Wensley companies through inter-company loans.

There were 33 creditors at the time, including the Queenstown Lakes District Council and the former Lakes Environmental.

The Wensley Developments liquidation was completed only last December. The secured lenders were unable to be paid in full, and there were no proceeds for other creditors.

There was $139,600 in asset realisations, most of which went in liquidators, legal and professional fees.

 

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