Ngāti Awa Group Holding’s Whakaari White Island tour company has $8.5 million debts and now liquidators have issued the latest six-monthly report, outlining only $53,000 in assets.
White Island Tours led the fatal 2019 tour where 22 people died and 25 others were injured when the volcano erupted.
Last March, White Island Tours counsel Richard Raymond said the reparations would be paid via insurance.
At the date of the liquidators’ appointment last June, the Whakatāne-headquartered company’s records showed unsecured creditor’s claims totalling $8,539,067, the latest report said.
That comprised a fine payable to the Ministry of Justice after a judgment order, a shareholder loan of $8,018,000 and $4067 legal fees.
Gareth Hoole and Ray Cox of Ecovis KGA in Newmarket assessed assets and liabilities of the company, incorporated in 2005 and which until 2019 took guided tours to the island.
The accounts are from June 7 to December 6 last year.
Hoole and Cox sold $53,000 of assets and paid $12,000 in that period, including to themselves in fees.
“The liquidators have received $53,839 from realisations of the company’s assets and have made payments of $12,682 associated with costs of the liquidation including the liquidators’ fees and disbursements totalling $8311.
“A balance of $41,157 was held in the liquidators’ trust account as at December 6,” the report said.
Hoole and Cox had also held discussions with the director Bernard Quinn relating to the creditors, and notified IRD, having found no money was owed in tax.
White Island Tours did not have any employees at the date of liquidation and did not have outstanding holiday pay or outstanding wages payable to employees at the date of liquidation.
Hoole and Cox paid $2034 to Inland Revenue towards a pre-liquidation GST return. IRD had said there was no preferential or non-preferential claim against the company.
They said Worksafe New Zealand had prosecuted the company for its role in the disaster and the District Court issued a judgement in March last year and ordered the company to pay a fine and reparations.
“The liquidators will be engaging with the coroner to confirm if the company’s shareholder, Ngāti Awa Group Holdings, can be accepted as an interested party in place of the company in those inquiries and if the liquidation needs to remain open whilst those inquiries are being conducted,” their report said.
Subject to any unforeseen matters arising from the investigation of the company’s affairs and the timeframe associated with the realisation of the assets and the business, Hoole and Cox said it was not feasible to assess the likely completion date of the liquidation.
Last month, dozens of people attended Te Mānuka Tutahi Marae in Whakatāne to mark the eruption’s fifth anniversary.
Last year, Hoole said the company had few assets and it was not a huge job to handle the liquidation.
An independent review found WorkSafe fell short of good practice in regulating activities on Whakaari/White Island.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.