The Fiji National Provident Fund is taking over the Momi Bay
resort project in an attempt to claw back its $F80 million
($NZ61.3m) investment.
Fiji National Provident Fund chairman Parmesh Chand told the
Fiji Times today that the fund was now exercising its right
as a mortgagor.
The foreclosure appears to end any hope New Zealand investors
in failed finance company Bridgecorp have of recovering
$NZ106.6m the finance company's executives sank into the
resort.
On most of its loans, Bridgecorp was not the first-ranking
mortgagee, and returns from $32.9 million worth of Australian
loans are also likely to be minimal.
Receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) initially said in
their six-monthly report on Bridgecorp -- which collapsed in
July 2007 owing $459m to 14,360 secured debenture holders --
the final payout would be between 13c and 44c in the dollar.
The largest loan the company had was to Fiji's Momi Resort,
but Colin McCloy and Maurice Noone of PWC have only said they
were working with the developer and financiers to try to
secure funding to complete the project.
Last year investors were told of a recovery between 13c and
21c in the dollar, excluding the Momi Bay resort, but since
then they have been told that excluding the overseas assets
and ongoing legal matters, secured debenture investors are
likely to receive less than 10c in the dollar.
The project was to have been the largest resort development
in Fiji and the South Pacific.
It was to have been the first to have over-water bungalows,
the first Marriott Resort, the first Ritz Carlton and the
first public-private partnership in Fiji.
News of the project's troubles first emerged in 2006 when the
project was 12 months behind schedule and in need of more
funds.
Earlier this year, Bridgecorp chairman Bruce Davidson and
non-executive directors Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad were
charged by the Securities Commission for making false
statements in investment statements and registered
prospectuses of the company.
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