Railmark chief executive B. Allen Brown told the Otago Daily Times yesterday he was still eyeing the New Zealand rail scene.
"The company has every intention of establishing itself as a rail and rail services provider in New Zealand. While the Kingston Flyer was going to serve as the company's base rail project, we nonetheless ... hope to announce our next domestic New Zealand rail project soon.
"We wish the new owners of the Kingston assets success in their new operation," Mr Brown said.
The new proprietor is tipped to be Blenheim vineyard owner David Bryce. He did not return calls yesterday, but on May 26 registered Kingston Flyer Ltd and Kingston Tavern Ltd with the New Zealand Companies Office.
Details of the sale are expected to be released today.
Kingston Acquisitions Ltd (KAL) operated the 126-year-old railway as a tourist attraction before going into receivership in November 2009 owing Prudential Mortgage $4.7 million. Since then, the Flyer's two heritage locomotives have sat idle in an uncovered Kingston railyard.
The asset portfolio includes passenger cars, a station, the tracks, a parcel of consented subdivision land and the Kingston Tavern, which closed at the end of May under the cloud of uncertainty due to ongoing receivership woes.
Last year, Railmark entered into a memorandum of understanding with Prudential involving "a complicated series of steps to acquire the Kingston assets under a debt for equity swap," Mr Brown said.
Railmark followed all Prudential's requests in the deal and Mr Brown said he took "issue with the way Prudential conducted this transaction ... we may pursue this matter further". Prudential owner George Jones would not confirm the sale yesterday and said Prudential would issue a press release "the minute we have anything available".
Mr Brown said Railmark twice made cash offers to KAL before it was placed in receivership, both of which were rejected by Prudential, and made another certified offer to receiver Lindsay McClean, of Queenstown, once KAL went into receivership and was again turned down.
Acquiring the Flyer would have been "just the beginning" of a much bigger tourism operation.
Railmark had planned to use New Zealand as a base to manage all its international operations outside the US, including "domestic New Zealand operations such as the Kingston Flyer and other heavy freight and commuter rail projects the company had plans to pursue".
The company had anticipated creating 40 jobs in Kingston and 60 jobs in Queenstown, where Railmark New Zealand would have been headquartered.
