A multimillion-dollar Central Otago subdivision at the centre of an earlier failed purchase by a private Dunedin property investment company has been sold by its receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
A $1.2 million non-refundable deposit paid by the earlier would-be Dunedin buyer Bendemeer Trustees Ltd will now go into the receivers' general fund.
The troubled 24-section Bendemeer subdivision near Lakes Hayes, which is in the hands of receivers and owes almost $40 million, has been sold for an undisclosed sum to an unnamed buyer, receiver John Fisk confirmed when contacted.
"Because of confidentiality [clauses], we can make no further disclosure on the purchaser," Mr Fisk said.
The new buyer had been "waiting in the wings" during the period when Dunedin businessman Paul Nicholson, of Bendemeer Trustees, had sought to clinch his $12 million offer, but Mr Nicholson failed to raise the funds to settle the $10.8 million balance by the due date late last month.
Mr Fisk said the new and separate buyer had an unconditional sale and purchase agreement in place and due to be settled this month.
Mr Nicholson has lost $5.4 million of mainly southern investors funds in two failed deals.
The first loss came through an earlier private investment property company, Hurricane House, which went into liquidation owing investors $4.2 million in February 2009, plus the latest $1.2 million lost through Bendemeer Trustees last month.
When asked about the $1.2 million non-refundable deposit, Mr Fisk said the money would go into the receivers' general fund, but he otherwise had no update on disbursement expectations over the receivership.
Between the time Mr Nicholson lodged the $1.2 million deposit for Bendemeer in early May and being told by PricewaterhouseCoopers in late July his bid was no longer being considered unless he settled, the title to his Dunedin home, which had a rateable value in July last year of $550,000, had been taken over by a Wellington-based company.
While Mr Nicholson had a few former Hurricane House investors encouraging him to resume his commercial property ventures, an equal number of former investors were highly critical of his efforts and soliciting for new funds for the Bendemeer deal.
