The accountant who has been trying to save a block of Maori land at Matauri Bay from creditors says freeholding it is now the best option.
Kevin Gillespie was appointed by the Maori Land Court to administer the affairs of the Matauri X Incorporation after it ran into debt in 2001 with a failed business venture.
The court approved a leasehold subdivision on part of the land to repay the loan, but the debt has now grown to more than $20 million, the finance company has collapsed, and few sections have sold.
Receivers for Strategy Finance, PricewaterhouseCoopers, are offering to cap the debt and reschedule the repayments.
They are also applying to the court to freehold the subdivision to make the sections more appealing to buyers.
Mr Gillespie says that's the best offer Matauri X is likely to get. He says the receivers could, if they chose, exercise their rights as mortgagee under Te Ture Whenua (the Maori Land Act), foreclose and sell the land in a fire sale.
Matauri X shareholders, including former MP Dover Samuels, are opposing the freehold application in the Maori Land Court in Whangarei next week.
