Liquidation of Serepisos' Century City winds up with $2 mln owing to unsecured creditors
By Jonathan Underhill
March 7 (BusinessDesk) - The liquidators of former bankrupt Terry Serepisos's Century City group have completed their
wash-up of the property development, retailing and sports management businesses with about $2 million owing to unsecured
creditors, having concluded there were no voidable transactions that could have been challenged.
Liquidators Jeremy Morley and John Fisk of PricewaterhouseCoopers have sought to have the 13 companies removed from the
register of companies, noting in their final report that their work had been made "somewhat more difficult given the
poor state and age of records."
Serepisos had lived the high-life of a property developer, with luxury homes and sports cars, the licence for the
Wellington Phoenix football team and sponsorship of the 2009 Wellington Cup at Trentham racecourse that saw him rubbing
shoulders with Prime Minister John Key among others. His address at the time was given as 11 Robieson St in the upmarket
Wellington suburb of Roseneath, but according to Companies Office records for Titanium Trust Management, which lists
Serepisos as sole shareholder and director, he now lives in the more modest suburb of Miramar.
At the time of his bankruptcy in September 2011, his portfolio of about 150 residential properties and more than six
commercial buildings was valued at $232.5 million with debts totalling $204 million. He was discharged from bankruptcy
in October 2014.
As recently as September last year, the liquidators had indicated there were a number of potential recovery actions
related to potentially insolvent and related-party transactions, but in their final report they said investigations had
thrown up no voidable transactions or matters that warranted further investigation.
Secured creditors including ANZ New Zealand, Allied Finance, South Canterbury Finance, and Marac Finance were able to
claw back some of their funds through the sale of property and discharge their claims, and little was left over for the
liquidators. The only secured creditor still registered was Executive Laundry (Wellington), with a claim against Century
City Accommodation.
Century City Football had held the A-League licence for the Wellington Phoenix club, which was relinquished to the
Football Federation Australia in September 2011.
The liquidators report shows the football company had seven preferential claims from unsecured creditors amounting to
$276,241 relating to unpaid wages and GST, and 11 from non-preferential unsecured creditors owed about $1.6 million.
Neither group got what they were owed. The Inland Revenue Dept had a claim for unpaid GST of $60,391 against Century
City Investments, while the remaining unsecured creditors were owed smaller amounts.
(BusinessDesk)