Mr Cates was once part-owner of an extensive southern hospitality group, which was sold for $32 million in 2007, but which is now under different ownership and in separate receivership proceedings owing more than $100 million.
In the High Court at Dunedin, on Monday, Australian-based banking group Investec Wentworth Private Equity Pty Ltd, which is a rugby Super 14 sponsor, successfully sought to have Mr Cates placed in bankruptcy, understood to be over a debt of less than $200,000.
Mr Cates was called by Judge Osborne but neither he nor legal counsel on his behalf came forward.
In March 2007, the New Zealand Hospitality Group, a company owned by Mr Cates and Dunedin businessman Ricky Quirk, sold 27 of its bars to an Australian firm for $32 million.
New South Wales hospitality investor CEA Trading took over the group's businesses throughout New Zealand but it was understood they had been on-sold.
In May this year, four New Zealand companies under the CEA banner were placed in receivership by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The 20 licensed premises, which have continued trading, include two in Wanaka and another in Queenstown and employed 300 people.
The receivers' first report, released earlier this month, said the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was owed $55.3 million, Investec Bank $48.8 million and there was an estimated breweries bill of $5.4 million - figures which were still to be audited and verified.
The receivers, who had closed two bars and sold another, intended selling the balance of 17 premises, but not in the short-term because of the present economic environment. The receivers did not expect any funds to be available for unsecured investors owed about $1.5 million.
In late June, Mr Quirk was made bankrupt and the Insolvency and Trustee Service has since listed him, with a home address in Palmerston North, as bankrupt as of June 2 following a successful creditor petition in the High Court at Christchurch.
In March 2007, the New Zealand Hospitality Group was reported to have signed a five-year contract with CEA Trading to manage the 27 bars it had sold earlier, but that was terminated early last year, a company executive said last October.
