Steve Rout Contracting Ltd was put into receivership in May 2011 and subsequently placed into liquidation in August 2011, both of which were completed on Monday.
Liquidator Craig Melhuish, of Nexia New Zealand, confirmed the total estimated shortfall to all creditors was $6,909,889 — comprising $4,779,751 to secured and $2,130,138 to unsecured creditors.
Stephen Rout is listed as the company’s sole director.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Mr Rout said he had not had anything to do with the liquidation for at least 10 years and did not know the numbers involved.
‘‘I would have thought it would be a lot less than that, but I don’t know the figures because I’ve never seen them.’’
He believed the numbers were ‘‘all around finance, not what’s owed to individuals’’.
Asked if there was anything he wanted to say to the people still owed money, Mr Rout said: ‘‘No, not at this point. It’s too far in the history.’’
‘‘All I can say is we’ve sorted everyone we needed to.’’
The process over the past 15 years had been ‘‘personally ... very difficult’’, he said.
Steve Rout Contracting was established in 1981 and was involved in the construction of Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The liquidators’ final report stated the company operated an earthworks moving operation, which did business principally in Queenstown.
‘‘The directors attributed the downturn in the industry, the loss of several large contracts and significant bad debts.’’
At the time the company went into receivership, Mr Rout told the Otago Daily Times work on the stadium would continue with his other company, Blue 9 Ltd, where many of the workers affected by the receivership had been redeployed.
That company was placed into liquidation in June 2014 by the High Court at Christchurch, and has since been removed from the New Zealand Companies Register.
There have been a total of 32 receivers’ reports published over the duration of Steve Rout Contracting’s receivership.
The final report said the receivers were able to conclude a sale for the business and part of the company’s fleet to Blue 9 at market value.
This allowed them to maximise the value of all work in progress and facilitate the completion of contracts, ‘‘which would have otherwise been unrecoverable had the business ceased to trade’’.
‘‘This included facilitating the completion of a contract for Hawkins Construction Ltd relating to the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.’’
A settlement was negotiated with Hawkins and the completion of various other contracts was facilitated as part of the pre-packed sale.
The majority of the company’s remaining assets were sold by public tender and net proceeds were distributed to secured creditors.
A total of $3.5m was distributed to secured creditors during the receivership.
Steve Rout Contracting also had a general security agreement with UDC Finance Ltd; the receivers and managers were appointed under the terms of this agreement.
The report said the amount due as it related to the agreement totalled $3.83m, before interest.
UDC Finance declined to comment on the amount due when contacted.
BDO Christchurch partner Colin Gower said the directors had co-operated with the receivers and the receivership was now brought to a conclusion.
He said the receivers had noted the length of time it took to complete the receivership.
