A Christchurch company running a panel shop repairing motor vehicles has gone under owing just over $600,000 in unpaid staff payments, tax and other bills.
NZ Panel under shareholder and director Warnakulasuriya Dilanka Niroshan Fernando was placed in liquidation on April 3.
The total estimated shortfall is thought to include about $10,000 owed in staff wages and holiday pay, $300,000 in unpaid bills to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and $300,000 owed to unsecured creditors.
Insolvency Matters’ insolvency practitioner Brenton Hunt filed the first liquidators' report on April 8.
The initial report said NZ Panel had gone into insolvency because it had been struggling with working capital for some time.
The company’s core business was closed last August with a new operator taking over the site and partial trading continuing at a reduced level.
The director has since relocated to Australia with IRD beginning recovery action for overdue assessments. After seeking professional advice, Mr Fernando placed the company into voluntary liquidation.
The liquidator will investigate the company’s trading history, including looking for any insolvent transactions undervalued in the two years before liquidation.
Unsecured creditors include ACC, IRD and staff and named secured creditors were KM Finance, Heartland Bank and Resene Automotive.
The initial findings of the liquidator are that all the plant and equipment was sold by the director before the business went into liquidation, which will be investigated, and a motor vehicle owned by the company with finance more than its value is to be returned to a finance company. Initial investigations indicate an overdrawn shareholder account.
At this stage it looks like there will be no funds available to unsecured creditors, but the liquidator said this would depend on the progress of the liquidation.
Secured creditors are normally paid in the first case followed by preferential creditors and if there are any funds left this is distributed to unsecured creditors and finally shareholders.
