Northern Crest to close NZ office

Mark Bryers Photo / Dean Purcell

The last surviving business of Mark Bryers' failed Blue Chip group, Northern Crest Investments, will close its New Zealand office and relocate across the Tasman after settling outstanding bills with property mogul Bob Jones.

The company, which licenses property investment services, lodged a notice of intention to remove itself from the New Zealand Companies Office register, two years after shareholders approved such a move.

The company has repaid the remaining $450,000 owed to Robt Jones Holdings for unpaid rent and the Serious Fraud Office dropped investigations into the Blue Chip group, saying there wasn't enough evidence to pursue a prosecution.

"As I'm sure you know, we've had issues to tidy up in New Zealand and they've been dealt with," executive director Laurie Eakin said.

"It's something that's been on the cards for quite some time."

Eakin said the exit didn't mean Northern Crest was giving up on the New Zealand market.

The company's new direction has been to focus on selling licences for its intellectual property, and it intends to expand this business into New Zealand, according to the 2010 annual report.

Northern Crest made all of its $4.4 million of sales through licence fees in the year ended March 31.

Net profit was $3.7 million, most of which came from discontinued businesses, down from $15.2 million a year earlier.

Northern Crest twice dodged liquidation last year, the first time in June when the High Court in Auckland decided the firm's new board, which sidelined Bryers, would have a better chance of trading out of cash deficit, easing the pressure on the liquidators of the rest of the group.

The second time, it managed to convince RJHL to give it more time to repay its debt.

Bryers stepped down from the board in May last year, though he was paid $113,000 in consultancy fees in the latest year.

Last month, he dodged a fraud trial when the SFO dropped its investigation, saying that although the Blue Chip group may have operated in a "moral vacuum" there wasn't any evidence of fraud.

He escaped a prison sentence earlier this year when he pleaded guilty to 34 charges relating to the company's mismanagement and improper accounting, angering more than 2,000 investors owed some $84 million who saw his punishment of a $33,750 fine and 75 hours' community work as inadequate.

Northern Crest, formerly known as Blue Chip Financial Solutions, kept its listing on the Australian Stock Exchange after delisting from the NZX in 2006.

It was suspended from trading in Australia in February 2008 after failing to pay its listing fees. The shares were last at 9 Australian cents.

Eakin has said the company hopes to get trading in its stock reinstated this year.