However, he admits there is only "some hope" he can gain refinancing to buy back the $55 million debt from receivers Grant Thornton and said shareholders in Pegasus Town Ltd might take a "quite considerable haircut" if the receivership went ahead.
There appears to be a likelihood a party in pushing the receivership, the mammoth Brookfield Australia Investments Group, could take over the Pegasus project to see it through to completion.
Mr Robertson said in an interview yesterday the "business of Pegasus was rock solid", there were no creditors, all staff had been paid and the project had been cash-flow positive for the past year.
The problem had been refinancing for the core debt of $55 million.
While the refinancing was "99.8% available" on Tuesday night from an unnamed New Zealand corporate funder and mainstream bank, as the receivership was now in place, that availability had "dropped by 75%", he said.
The eight-year-old Pegasus township at present has 600 residents, with a target of 7000, and has achieved about $200 million of sales so far, about 420 homes either having been completed or under construction or consented.
New Zealand Property Finance Partners, a consortium of investment bank Goldman Sachs and Brookfield, placed Mr Robertson's Pegasus Town Ltd into the hands of receivers Grant Thornton yesterday over the outstanding $55 million loan.
That loan was bought by the consortium from the Bank of Scotland last year, possibly for much less than face value.
Mr Robertson said Pegasus remained "robust and vibrant", up to 40 homes were under construction and there had been $50 million in sales and pre-sales since December.
"Yes, costs are up the last 12 months, but there have been good sales," he said.
In 2008, when Pegasus was mooted as a $2 billion project, it was reported the project's parent company, Mr Robertson's Infinity Investment Group, had a loan of $151 million from Bank of Scotland International, whose British parent bank required an emergency takeover by Lloyds TSB, costing $NZ33.5 billion, in September that year.
In April 2008, after Pegasus' launch day, when $122 million of property was sold, Mr Robertson's Infinity was said to have up to 12 $100 million developments under way.
"We don't have the cash reserves in our company to pick up the debt," Mr Robertson said.
Asked yesterday if the receivership could be viewed as an aggressive takeover by Brookfield, he said "it's not".
"Brookfield has been fair to date and [we] operated under good-faith relations".
While "surprised" and "disappointed" about the receivership push, he was not "bitter" about the proceedings. However, these may yet leave the original shareholders facing large losses, which he would not specify yesterday.
On speculation Brookfield may take over development of Pegasus township, he said the billion-dollar fund had the financial means and property development experience to do so.
"I won't be critical. They have every right to do that [receivership] ... They can come in and take the profit themselves," he said.
"There's nothing to be sour about. That's business," Mr Robertson said.
Brookfield, whose interests include construction, property development, property funds management and infrastructure, booked $A3.32 billion ($NZ4.39 billion) in revenue in the last financial year and an after-tax profit of $A315.4 million.
Mr Robertson said an unbudgeted-for $10 million, which had to be spent on post-earthquake remedial work at Pegasus township, had become an "Achilles' heel" for the township project.
"Property developing is not an easy space to be in in New Zealand right now," he said.
The activities of Pegasus Town Ltd were "ring-fenced" and entirely separate from other business or project interests of its parent company, Infinity Investment Group Holdings Ltd, and there would be "no fall-out on Infinity", he said.
• Pegasus Town Ltd was incorporated in May 2004. Its directors are Mr Robertson, John Beattie of Wanaka, George Berry of Oamaru and Iain Weir of Wanaka. The 50:50 shareholders of the total 20.8 million Pegasus Town Ltd's shares are Mr Robert-son's Infinity Investment Group Holdings Ltd and Pegasus Town Investments Ltd, the latter ultimately owned by Mr Berry and Revell Buckham of Queenstown.
• Infinity has since 1999 been involved in many major multimillion-dollar projects, including Sunrise Bay, Lakeside Apartments, Riverside Village, Flock Hill Station, Hillend High Country Resort and Peninsula Bay. Infinity is also behind the proposed $150 million 43km monorail development, the Fiordland link between Lake Wakatipu and Te Anau, having bought the project in 2002.
