He has four weeks to convince his 27 creditors he can sell the properties -- more than 150 residential and more than six commercial assets, worth about $230m -- over a number of years in a way that will not flood the market and bring prices down.
In the High Court at Wellington today, Mr Serepisos again staved off bankruptcy when his lawyer, this time John Billington, QC, successfully put forward a plan that Mr Serepisos work with two insolvency experts to avoid "an economic and social catastrophe".
Mr Billington said that if Mr Serepisos was made bankrupt, his 17 secured creditors would take immediate action and the Wellington property market would be flooded.
"That has the potential to significantly depress the residential and commercial market... it would also impact the value of other commercial properties and have significant downstream effects."
Mr Billington said Mr Serepisos was struggling to pay penalty interest rates, rather than normal commercial rates, and his creditors could not be dealt with on a piecemeal basis.
A company Mr Billington named as Boss International, which was owed $97m, was interested in the proposal, as were others, he said.
Mr Serepisos has until September 26 to put the proposal to his creditors before the case is next heard in the High Court.
Lawyers for South Canterbury Finance receivers and Equitable Mortgages, which are owed about $18m and $10m respectively, did not oppose the move.
Associate Judge David Gendall noted that if there was an orderly sale of Mr Serepisos' properties there was the prospect that all creditors would be paid in full.
He warned that the adjournment must not be an effort to buy time.
Judge Gendall also ordered that he and Mr Serepisos' lawyer be notified if anyone wanted to search the court file, which contained commercially sensitive material, to stop anyone trying to pick up a bargain property.
