Beleaguered Queenstown apartment developer Wensley Developments Ltd has been placed in liquidation by its owners owing an estimated more than $10 million.
The company is owed more than $20 million by apartment buyers reneging on purchase agreements.
Despite about nine major developments totalling 300-400 apartments built and sold during the past 14 years around Queenstown, Wensley has come unstuck over its $37 million 28-apartment Marina Baches complex in Queenstown.
Twenty of the pre-sale purchasers failed to settle, reportedly owing the company more than $20 million.
The liquidators' first report assigns $6.5 million of debt to unsecured creditors and $4.3 million to secured creditors.
However, the value of assets is still not known, and there are inter-company advances to and from Wensley companies of respectively $4.7 million and $4.35 million.
Director Ross Wensley was contacted yesterday in Invercargill and said the result of being owed more than $20 million for the Marina Baches had "put pressure on all the [Wensley] companies".
"We first bought the land about six years ago. If people then don't settle when they are committed to . . . it doesn't matter if it's 77 apartments or 28," Mr Wensley said.
He estimated up to 400 apartments had been built by Wensley since the mid-1990s in nine projects, including the latest, The Club (44 apartments), The Shore (84) and The Beacon (77).
Lloyd Hayward, of chartered accountants Meltzer Mason Health, had been appointed liquidator and said in a Companies Office report yesterday 21 of the total 28 apartments were presold on unconditional contracts, but 20 buyers had failed to settle.
"The profit margins for the sales of these apartments that were initially expected have not eventuated.
"In the current economic environment these profits are not likely to be achieved," Mr Hayward said.
Liquidation specialists, who declined to be named, said there appeared to be a lot of work ahead for the Wensley liquidators, in identifying the assets, debts and how the inter-company advances and loans worked.
Of the more than 30 creditors identified by the liquidators, the majority were based in Queenstown and Invercargill, including many tradespeople, the Queenstown Lakes District Council, Lakes Environmental, Inland Revenue and property and legal firms.
Mr Hayward said it was unknown how long the liquidation would take but he said it was "unlikely there will be a distribution to creditors".
"The director advises that the company has no assets," Mr Hayward said.
In February, when the buyers started reneging on their apartment purchase agreements, the Wensley family began selling houses, cars and a boat, and vacated its Queenstown office to pay creditors.
Wensley Developments Ltd was incorporated in January 1951 with its directors being Ross Wensley, son Greg and daughter Julie Jack, with Ross and Raewyn Wensley holding almost 80% of the shares, according to Companies Office documents.
• Wensley Developments' The Club Ltd, incorporated in 2003, was placed in voluntary liquidation in mid-November last year.
Mr Wensley and son Greg are the sole directors, with 100% of its shares owned by Wensley Developments Ltd.
The liquidators' report last year said restructuring included the sale of all uncompleted but unsold apartments at The Club to another Wensley company.
When all the apartments were sold, there would be an assessment on debt recovery.
