The sale of plant, equipment and land in the $6.7 million Faulks Enterprises receivership in Queenstown has been concluded, but negotiations with buyers are still under way, according to Dunedin receivers Deloitte.
Faulks was placed in voluntary receivership in mid-October by its director, Gary Kirk, of Riversdale in Northern Southland.
Deloitte's first report was posted in late-November.
Deloitte receiver Michael Horne said when contacted yesterday the sale by tender of plant, land and equipment closed last Friday, but "negotiations are still under way" and as yet no final figure was available.
Faulks was involved in major earthworks projects, section development, landscaping, gravel extraction and truck contracting.
Established in the mid-1980s by Tony Faulks, the company was sold in October 2006 to Mr Kirk, a Southland hotelier and farmer.
Work had been scaled back during the past 12-months and the six remaining employees were expected to finish outstanding contracts.
Included in the tender sale were large truck and tractor units, excavators, bulldozers, trailers, utilities and roading and surveying equipment owned by the infrastructure and roading company, which had continued trading "in a minor way" since the receivership.
Faulks Enterprises was incorporated in September 2006, with Mr Kirk as sole director and majority shareholder.
A total $6.76 million was owed in mid-October to first-ranking general security holder the Bank of New Zealand and while employees as preferential creditors were expected to be paid in full, payments to unsecured creditors of more than $300,000 were yet to be determined.
"We are not confident there will be any surplus available to unsecured creditors," Dunedin-based Deloitte's receiver Murray Frost said in his first report.
On the Personal Property Securities Register, the BNZ has 20 claims on assets, mainly vehicles, owned by Faulks Enterprises.
"The outlook for the industry sector the company [Faulks] operated in meant that the directors believed it unlikely that the trading position would improve in the short to medium term," Mr Frost said.
The receivers' first report notes declaring a deficit or surplus to security holders was "subject to realisations", with assets such as land, buildings, plant and equipment valued at $4.98 million.
Mr Horne said yesterday until realisation of the equipment sale was concluded, no decision would be made on whether the company would continue to trade or close.
The business asset sales were expected to be completed by the end of the month and others within three months.
The receivership should be concluded by July next year.
