Failed Dunedin businessman Paul Nicholson - whose private investment company Hurricane House is in liquidation owing $4.2 million - has just incorporated a new company.
Companies Office records show Bendemeer Trustees Ltd was incorporated on April 28, with its sole director and sole shareholder being Mr Nicholson, of Belleknowes, Dunedin.
Mr Nicholson's Hurricane House was placed in liquidation in February 2009 owing 25 creditors, half of who were from Dunedin, about $4.2 million.
Mr Nicholson, when contacted yesterday, declined to reveal his plans for Bendemeer Trustees, saying only the "full story" would be told "once the Hurricane House issue was resolved".
A Dunedin business source understands Mr Nicholson's Bendemeer Trustees may be interested in the Bendemeer subdivision in Central Otago, which is in receivership owing about $39.5 million, but no-one has confirmed this.
However, Mr Nicholson further declined to comment when asked if Bendemeer Trustees was linked to any offer and deposit made for the subdivision.
PricewaterhouseCoopers receiver John Fisk, who is overseeing the Bendemeer subdivision sale, confirmed, when contacted, a contract to buy the subdivision had been entered into recently.
However, the deal was "not yet settled". For confidentiality reasons he would not disclose who made the offer.
A Wellington lawyer acting for Mr Nicholson declined to comment when contacted yesterday.
Since Hurricane's liquidation, Dunedin-based Insolvency Management Ltd has overseen asset sales, including properties and a $1 million life insurance policy which went to an overseas buyer for an undisclosed sum.
The total payments to Hurricane creditors from four dividends so far equates to 12.75c in the dollar - or about $535,000 of the original $4.2 million.
Liquidators said yesterday they expected "further dividends" to be paid this year, but declined to predict what the final figure might be.
"We still have a couple of properties and other assets to consider," the liquidator said.
The original 130ha Bendemeer subdivision development, near Lake Hayes, came under the control of receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers after the $400 million demise of Strategic Finance and its receivership in March 2010.
Strategic was a lender for Bendemeer, which after a series of different owners, was itself owed $39.5 million when Bendemeer's majority owner Rakaia River Holdings was placed in receivership in November 2010.
At the heart of the Hurricane House collapse was an unusually unsecured $4.5 million loan by Hurricane to a Christchurch finance company, which itself later collapsed into receivership and was unable to repay the loan.
Much of the capital tied up with Hurricane investments and loans, which was promoted to a small circle of friends, family and other investors by Mr Nicholson, included the use of family homes as collateral to raise investment funds.
In April last year, Allied Nationwide Finance, a subsidiary of Allied Farmers, successfully got a summary court judgement against Mr Nicholson for a $87,000 debt, according to the Mercantile Gazette . The debt's nature was unexplained.
