ATNZ liquidation continues
Liquidators have yet to put a date on when they expect to complete the liquidation of Autoterminal New Zealand Ltd (ATNZ) despite spending more than two years investigating the company’s books and records.
In that time, $27.1 million has been paid to unsecured creditors and more than $903,000 to employees, Inland Revenue, and preferential and secured creditors. The liquidators’ bill comes in at more than $1m.
South Auckland-based ATNZ traded from April 2000 as a vehicle importer, inspection and complier, and wholesaler of Japanese vehicles. It was put into liquidation in 2021 by shareholder and director Mike Tyler after a high-court judgement of $38.6m went in IBC Japan Ltd’s favour.
The business was later sold by the liquidators to ATNZ 2000 Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of IBC.
Steven Khov and Kieran Jones, of Khov Jones, who were appointed as ATNZ’s liquidators on September 11, 2021, are continuing to realise or disclaim the company’s assets.
Their latest report, which covers March 11 to September 10 this year, notes recovery efforts of funds advanced to an overseas party have been ongoing and a distribution to unsecured creditors was made.
“It is not practicable to estimate the date of completion of the liquidation as there are unresolved matters including legal claims against parties that may produce a recovery for the benefit of creditors,” they add.
There has been correspondence this year with IBC regarding a claim it is asserting against Tyler and about the liquidators’ remuneration, which the latter have applied to the high court to have approved.
Progress in the six months covered by the report includes a secured claim of $21,988 from a company and a preferential claim of $491,979 from Inland Revenue being paid in full.
NZ Customs and ATNZ employees have also received payments on preferential claims of $219,534 and $153,498 respectively.
Meanwhile, unsecured creditor claims received to date total just over $39m, which includes a claim from IBC for $38.7m.
“As part of the terms of the sale of the [ATNZ] business to the IBC subsidiary, IBC elected to subordinate its unsecured claim to enable other third-party trade creditors who had claimed prior to a certain date to receive a full distribution,” the report adds.
“Accordingly, the liquidators have made distributions totalling $356,877.49 towards these creditors’ claims.”
As part of the sale of the business and some vehicles subsequently sold to ATNZ 2000, IBC has received a distribution towards its total claim of nearly $19.8m.
“In summary, all unsecured creditors’ claims have been paid 100 cents on the dollar except for IBC’s claim,” the report continues. “IBC has received a distribution of $26,695,641 to date made up of value and cash, which represents a distribution of 68.9 cents on the dollar.”
The report shows the liquidators’ remuneration sat just shy of $1.1m as of September 10, with the bill covering their costs, an investigative accountant, a senior manager, an insolvency analyst and administrative staff.
It reveals nearly 3,000 hours of work have been put into the matter over the past two years. During the current period, the liquidators “have incurred an additional $165,132 plus GST of fees that remain uninvoiced”.
“The liquidators have made an application to the high court seeking approval of their remuneration. The liquidators believe the fees and disbursements charged to date are fair and reasonable.
“The liquidators will continue to charge additional fees as incurred on a time and material basis.”
A statement of company affairs attached to the report reveals the book and actual values of ATNZ’s assets and liabilities, noting variances between these categories “reflect the company’s accounting records were not up to date at the date of liquidation”.
ATNZ’s actual assets of $35.3m include $3.3m in cash, $250,000 of plant and equipment, and $900,000 of vehicle inventory on-hand.
Listed among the liabilities are $30,287 of employees’ wages and $123,211 for employees’ holiday pay.
Liabilities for preferential and secured creditors total $886,999 and for unsecured creditors it is $39.1m. This puts the company’s estimated deficit before the costs of liquidation at $4.8m.
