KEY POINTS:
The trustee for OPI Pacific Finance says investors won't be affected by the liquidation of parent company OPI New Zealand despite plans to consider closing its subsidiaries.
OPI New Zealand, formerly known as MFS New Zealand, went into liquidation on November 14 after being placed into administration last
month.
The first report by liquidators Corporate Finance released this week has revealed the company has $10,000 in cash but by the time its creditors are taken into account the company is in deficit by $391,000.
Creditors are expected to get back just 6c in the dollar.
Corporate Finance liquidator Andrew McKay said the next steps would be to discuss the affairs of the company with its directors and realise the company's remaining assets.
"The liquidators will also consider whether it is in the interests of creditors for certain OPI subsidiaries to be placed into liquidation and their available assets distributed to OPI as the parent company," he stated.
OPI Pacific Finance is 100 per cent owned by OPI New Zealand through two shell companies and is one of six subsidiaries.
It has been in moratorium since May when its 12,000 stakeholders voted for a three-year plan to try to pay back the $300 million owed to them.
Yesterday McKay said he was not sure how it was going to deal with the Pacific Finance business but it was likely to be several months before it made any decisions.
"It's not one we are looking to liquidate and distribute assets at the moment. We have briefly talked about it with the lawyers but it is still a work in progress. We haven't figured out how to deal with it," he said.
The company was also dealing with the voluntary administration of Dominion Finance and was likely to prioritise that first, he said.
But Louise Edwards, chief executive of Perpetual Trust - the trustee of Pacific Finance - said a number of contractual obligations were in place to stop liquidators from closing the company.
"We don't believe liquidation will have an impact on OPI Pacific Finance," she said.
The trustee is negotiating with Australian company Octaviar which was obligated to pay stockholders in Pacific Finance through a put option agreement. Octaviar was placed into receivership in September after it failed to stave off demands from its creditors.
Edwards said Perpetual Trust was part of the creditors committee for Octaviar. She could not give a further update at this stage as it was still in negotiations.
If the negotiations are unsuccessful the company is likely to go to the receivers. Octaviar, formerly called MFS, is the largest shareholder in OPI New Zealand at 38.32 per cent. Troubled infrastructure investor Babcock and Brown is the second-largest shareholder at 19.21 per cent.
Its creditors include The New Zealand Exchange, OPI Pacific Holdings and the Inland Revenue.
THE FACTS
* OPI New Zealand is in liquidation
* Creditors are expected to get less than 6c in the dollar
* Its six subsidiaries include OPI Pacific Finance which is already in moratorium
