Archive | National Finance

Published 25 November 2008

The 3 directors of National Finance 2000 Ltd – Allan Ludlow, Tony Banbrook & Carol Braithwaite – have been banned from acting as company directors as they await a depositions hearing on prospectus & financial reporting charges.

Deputy Registrar of Companies Peter Barker said today Mr Ludlow & Ms Braithwaite were both prohibited for 4½ years and Mr Banbrook for 4 years, all from 14 October.

Mr Barker ruled that the 3 directors had mismanaged National Finance (among other companies) and it was this mismanagement that, at least partly, contributed to the company’s failure. The mismanagement allegations included reckless trading, failure to comply with its prospectus, breach of director’s duties and failure to maintain adequate books & records.

Mr Barker said he considered submissions from the directors in response to the allegations and found that, “both then & now, these directors do not understand their duties & responsibilities as company directors. Previous court rulings have made it clear that directors cannot avoid their responsibilities merely by saying they did not actively participate in decisions, weren’t aware of them or relied on others.”

Mr. Barker said investors would have relied on the directors & the decisions they made: “A director must take steps to get in a position to monitor the company and to form independent judgment on the matters that should be considered by a director.’

National Finance’s principal business consisted of providing vehicle hire-purchase finance. It was put into receivership on 10 May 2006 for failing to comply with its trust deed, and then put into liquidation on 1 August 2008. Shortly after the failure of National Finance, various related companies were also put into receivership &/or liquidation. These companies were vehicle traders (importers & wholesalers) & insurance brokers or were involved in the management of the National Finance group.

Earlier stories:

3 November 2008: National Finance directors’ depositions hearing set for March

24 October 2008: National Finance directors remanded on prospectus charges

5 October 2008: National Finance 2000 directors face criminal charges

12 March 2007: National Finance receivers take principal repayments to 40c

8 October 2006: Allan Hawkins buys National Finance (Payless Cars) loan book

26 July 2006: Receivers say 45% of National Finance loan book in arrears

7 June 2006: Under 50% back for National Finance secured investors, zilch for subordinateds

U column part 2, 28 May 2006: Handful of National Finance investors get money back now

U column part 6, 21 May 2006: Receivers at 6 companies in Ludlow’s Payless Cars group

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Attribution: Release from Registrar of Companies, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 3 November 2008

The 3 directors of National Finance 2000 Ltd – Allan Ludlow, Tony Banbrook & Carol Braithwaite – were remanded at large today to a depositions hearing starting next March and a defended hearing on one summary charge next May.

Mr Banbrook, an Auckland lawyer, spoke for all 3 as he outlined the position to Judge Jan Doogue in the Auckland District Court today.

Mr Banbrook said all charges were defended. The 5-day depositions hearing on the indictable charges is set to start on Monday 30 March and the summary charge is down for hearing on Monday 4 May.

The Registrar of Companies, Neville Harris, has laid charges relating to untrue statements in the company’s registered prospectus and failure to comply with financial reporting standards.

One charge against each director has been laid indictably under section 58 of the Securities Act, relating to the prospectus. The summary charge against each director is under section 36 of the Financial Reporting Act. Mr Ludlow also faces 6 further charges, laid indictably, under section 42 of the Financial Reporting Act.

Colin McCloy & John Waller (PWC) were appointed receivers of National Finance 2000 & 5 other companies in Mr Ludlow’s Payless Cars group in May 2006. The receivers sold the loan book to Cynotech Holdings Ltd (chairman Allan Hawkins) in October 2006.

National Finance 2000 was placed in voluntary liquidation on 22 July, with Bernie Montgomerie & Stuart Cunningham (Montgomerie & Associates) appointed. That voluntary appointment was invalidated on 1 August under new timing rules, but the High Court appointed the same liquidators on Inland Revenue’s application to wind the company up.

Earlier stories:

24 October 2008: National Finance directors remanded on prospectus charges

5 October 2008: National Finance 2000 directors face criminal charges

12 March 2007: National Finance receivers take principal repayments to 40c

8 October 2006: Allan Hawkins buys National Finance (Payless Cars) loan book

26 July 2006: Receivers say 45% of National Finance loan book in arrears

7 June 2006: Under 50% back for National Finance secured investors, zilch for subordinateds

U column part 2, 28 May 2006: Handful of National Finance investors get money back now

U column part 6, 21 May 2006: Receivers at 6 companies in Ludlow’s Payless Cars group

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Court call, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 24 October 2008

The 3 directors of National Finance 2000 Ltd, Allan Ludlow, Tony Banbrook & Carol Braithwaite, have been remanded on bail in the Auckland District Court to a status hearing on Monday 3 November.

Mr Banbrook, an Auckland lawyer, appeared in court on Monday and the other 2 directors yesterday. The remand, in a back courtroom, is a court administration process – no charges are read out.

The Registrar of Companies, Neville Harris, has laid charges relating to untrue statements in the company’s registered prospectus and failure to comply with financial reporting standards.

Colin McCloy & John Waller (PWC) were appointed receivers of National Finance 2000 & 5 other companies in Mr Ludlow’s Payless Cars group in May 2006. The receivers sold the loan book to Cynotech Holdings Ltd (chairman Allan Hawkins) in October 2006.

National Finance 2000 was placed in voluntary liquidation on 22 July, with Bernie Montgomerie & Stuart Cunningham (Montgomerie & Associates) appointed. That voluntary appointment was invalidated on 1 August under new timing rules, but the High Court appointed the same liquidators on Inland Revenue’s application to wind the company up.

Earlier stories:

5 October 2008: National Finance 2000 directors face criminal charges

12 March 2007: National Finance receivers take principal repayments to 40c

8 October 2006: Allan Hawkins buys National Finance (Payless Cars) loan book

26 July 2006: Receivers say 45% of National Finance loan book in arrears

7 June 2006: Under 50% back for National Finance secured investors, zilch for subordinateds

U column part 2, 28 May 2006: Handful of National Finance investors get money back now

U column part 6, 21 May 2006: Receivers at 6 companies in Ludlow’s Payless Cars group

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Company statement, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report. Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Court call, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 5 October 2008

The Companies Office has laid criminal charges against National Finance 2000 Ltd’s directors, Allan Ludlow, Tony Banbrook & Carol Braithwaite. They’re due to appear in the Auckland District Court on Thursday 23 October.

Registrar of Companies Neville Harris said on Friday: “The charges relate to untrue statements in the company’s registered prospectus and failure to comply with financial reporting standards.”

The National Enforcement Unit of the Companies Office is conducting the prosecution. Mr Harris said the unit was also liaising closely with the Serious Fraud Office, which is conducting its own investigation into National Finance 2000.

Colin McCloy & John Waller (PWC) were appointed receivers of National Finance 2000 & 5 other companies in Mr Ludlow’s Payless Cars group in May 2006. The receivers sold the loan book to Cynotech Holdings Ltd (chairman Allan Hawkins) in October 2006.

National Finance 2000 was placed in voluntary liquidation on 22 July, with Bernie Montgomerie & Stuart Cunningham (Montgomerie & Associates) appointed. That voluntary appointment was invalidated on 1 August under new timing rules, but the High Court appointed the same liquidators on Inland Revenue’s application to wind the company up.

In their fifth report, in July, the receivers said they’d paid secured debenture investors 40% of their $21.8 million and estimated another 7-8% would be recovered. Subordinated investors owed $3 million, and other unsecured creditors, won’t get anything back.

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Companies Office release, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 12 March 2007

The receivers of National Finance 2000 Ltd, PricewaterhouseCoopers partners Colin McCloy & John Waller, made a second interim repayment of principal to secured investors on Friday.

After an initial 30c/$1 payment in October, the receivers made a 10c payment.

National Finance was holding deposits of more than $21 million on behalf of secured investors. After the second repayment, more than $8.7 million will have been returned to investors since receivers were appointed in May 2006.

Mr McCloy said the second repayment resulted from further asset recoveries.

But for subordinated investors, the news remains bad. Mr McCloy said they still wouldn’t get any of their investments back.

Earlier stories:

8 October 2006: Allan Hawkins buys National Finance (Payless Cars) loan book

26 July 2006: Receivers say 45% of National Finance loan book in arrears

7 June 2006: Under 50% back for National Finance secured investors, zilch for subordinateds

U column part 2, 28 May 2006: Handful of National Finance investors get money back now

U column part 6, 21 May 2006: Receivers at 6 companies in Ludlow‘s Payless Cars group

Want to comment? Click on The new BD Central Forum or email [email protected].

Attribution: PWC release, story written by Bob Dey for this website.

Published 8 October 2006

The receivers of National Finance 2000 Ltd (director Allan Ludlow), PricewaterhouseCoopers partners Colin McCloy & John Waller, said on Friday they’d sold the National Finance loan book to a party associated with the listed Cynotech Holdings Ltd, whose chairman is former Equiticorp boss Allan Hawkins.

The $7.7 million purchase price has been paid in full after Cynotech carried out due diligence, but it needs to hold a shareholders’ meeting because the sum makes this a major transaction. Cynotech will post its notice of meeting on Friday 3 November and hold the meeting on Wednesday 6 December.

The receivables being acquired include the standard finance company loans of National Finance including:

loan accounts being paid currently
overdue loan accounts, and
salvage accounts & loans previously considered to be uncollectible.

Cynotech said: “The consideration payable has been arrived at after the conduct of a due diligence exercise on the loan accounts, including an assessment of the collectability of loans in each category. Realistically the full face value of the loan book will not be collectable and the consideration being paid reflects that. Cynotech has an experienced finance company & debt collection team, which is expected to be able to maximise the value of the loan receivables.”

The receivables are being held under a third-party arrangement until shareholder approval is received.

Mr McCloy said his receivership team was now in a position to make a partial repayment to some investors. “We plan to pay an initial dividend of 30% to secured debentureholders next week,” he said.

The receivers were continuing to realise National Finance’s remaining assets. Mr McCloy said secured debentureholders could recover 40-45% of their original investment once that process was completed.

“This is at the higher end of the 30-50% scale that we had estimated in June. Regretfully the position for subordinated investors has not changed from our position in June, and they will not recover anything from the assets in receivership.”

The receivers entered 6 of Mr Ludlow’s companies on 9-10 May – Great North Management Ltd, National Finance 2000 Ltd, Payless Cars Ltd, Payless Cars (North Shore) Ltd, Payless Cars (Ormiston) Ltd, Payless Cars (Papakura) Ltd.

Earlier stories:

26 July 2006: Receivers say 45% of National Finance loan book in arrears

7 June 2006: Under 50% back for National Finance secured investors, zilch for subordinateds

U column part 2, 28 May 2006: Handful of National Finance investors get money back now

U column part 6, 21 May 2006: Receivers at 6 companies in Ludlow‘s Payless Cars group

Want to comment? Click on The new BD Central Forum or email [email protected].

Attribution: PWC release, Cynotech statement, story written by Bob Dey for this website.

Published 26 July 2006

National Finance 2000 Ltd receiver Colin McCloy said today 45% of the company’s $27.4 million loan book was in arrears.

Of the $12.4 million arrears, $9.3 million was more than 150 days overdue, $1.3 million was to customers listed as “gone – no address” and another $1.6 million was listed as loans written off. That left just $251,000 overdue for periods up to 5 months.

“In light of the level of arrears, we believe that the allowance for writeoffs & provisions was inadequate and therefore the $20.1 million book value of the loan book was overstated,” Mr McCloy said in a report to the Registrar of Companies on the receivership, which began on 9 May.

“Our latest estimates are that secured investors could recover 30-50% of their investments (unchanged from the receivers’ original assessment at the start of June). Regretfully, subordinated investors are unlikely to recover anything from the receivership.

“In light of the poor recoveries to investors we have referred the events leading up to receivership to various authorities for investigation.”

Mr McCloy, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the timing of a pro rate principal distribution to investors would be determined by the success or otherwise of selling the loan book. The receivers got a large number of unsolicited inquiries, advertised for expressions of interest by 14 July and have told bidders to submit indicative non-binding bids by this Friday, 28 July. A number of bidders will then be asked to complete due diligence and submit legally binding bids.

Website: National Finance 2000 & Payless Cars receivers’ first report

Earlier stories:

7 June 2006: Under 50% back for National Finance secured investors, zilch for subordinateds

U column part 2, 28 May 2006: Handful of National Finance investors get money back now

U column part 6, 21 May 2006: Receivers at 6 companies in Ludlow‘s Payless Cars group

Want to comment? Click on The new BD Central Forum or email [email protected].

Attribution: Receivers’ report, story written by Bob Dey for this website.

Published 6 June 2006

Secured investors in National Finance 2000 Ltd (Allan Ludlow, head of the Payless Cars group) can expect to get only 30-50% of their original investments, receiver Colin McCloy said today.

He’s told subordinated investors, who rank below the secured investors, they’re unlikely to recover anything.

Mr McCloy said the receivers had analysed National Finance’s loan book and identified “a significant proportion” of loans that were in arrears or unlikely to be recovered.

The finance company’s trustee, Covenant Trustee Co Ltd, appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers partners Mr McCloy & John Waller as receivers on 9 May. Initial information supplied by the company indicated it held deposits of $25.5 million on behalf of 2026 investors and had made loans totalling $27.3 million to 3765 individuals or companies.

Mr McCloy said it was difficult to gauge when the recovered funds would be returned to secured investors, but he expected it to take some time. “It will depend on factors such as the way in which the loan book’s value is realised, along with the company’s other assets. It’s highly likely that the money will be paid out over time as loans are recovered, rather than as a lump sum.”

Given the low level of likely recovery for investors, Mr McCloy said the receivers and the trustee company had referred the receivership to relevant Government authorities for their investigation.

Companies in Allan Ludlow’s Payless Cars group that have been placed in receivership are Great North Management Ltd, National Finance 2000 Ltd, Payless Cars Ltd, Payless Cars (North Shore) Ltd, Payless Cars (Ormiston) Ltd & Payless Cars (Papakura) Ltd.

Earlier stories, U column part 2, 28 May 2006: Handful of National Finance investors get money back now

U column part 6, 21 May 2006: Receivers at 6 companies in Ludlow‘s Payless Cars group

Want to comment? Click on The new BD Central Forum or email [email protected].

Attribution: Release from receivers, story written by Bob Dey for this website.