A group of Asian retailers and supermarkets, which trades under the brands Yoyoso, Miniso and Acecco, has been put in liquidation, owing millions.
The High Court placed ANCZ Limited - the parent company of 23 entities - into liquidation on December 17, following an application by a creditor, H&D Investments.
Liu Liu was ANCZ’s sole director and shareholder.
Keaton Pronk and Steve Farquhar, of McDonald Vague, were appointed liquidators.
Eight of the stores in the group were trading at the time of the liquidators’ appointment, including Miniso Lorne St, Glenfield, and Ormiston, Yoyoso Newmarket, Albany and Sylvia Park, and Acecco Northcote and Mt Albert.
Pronk and Farquhar closed the Acecco Northcote store due to a lack of trading revenue, but kept the doors of the Mt Albert store open.
The liquidators’ report said most of the Yoyoso and Miniso stores would be closed throughout January.
Staff would continue to be employed to help wind down operations.
Pronk confirmed that at the date of liquidation there were 34 staff across the group.
The remaining 16 companies included in the liquidation no longer have physical locations, but the liquidators believed they still had debts owed to staff, Inland Revenue and various landlords.
At the time of the group’s liquidation, nine secured parties had registered 30 security interests against the group’s stores.
These included the Bank of New Zealand, Bidfood, Brambles New Zealand, Cabernet Foods, Coca-Cola Amatil NZ, Ecly, West Universe and Woolworths New Zealand.
The bulk of the registered security interests against the group and several stores was by China Construction Bank, with 17 general security agreements listed as cross-collateral.
According to the statement of affairs, preferential creditors were owed a total of $131,654 at the time of the liquidation. This included $23,783 owed to employees and $107,871 to Inland Revenue.
Pronk and Farquhar estimated there was also about $217,000 owing to former employees for wages, holiday pay and redundancy pay.
They had paid $63,000 as wage arrears to bring payments up to date, and expected employees still working to be paid their entitlements in full.
As for Inland Revenue, the liquidators said the department had not yet provided them with a creditor’s claim form.
However, from records Pronk and Farquhar reviewed, there was $910,000 due in respect of GST, and $30,000 owed in PAYE and other payroll deductions, totalling $940,000.
Pronk and Farquhar were investigating which stores owed which debts “due to some entities’ returns appearing to contain entries that may relate to several other entities’ taxable activities”.
The liquidators expected Inland Revenue to be left out of pocket.
As for secured creditors, the liquidators only listed China Construction Bank in the statement of affairs, with the bank owed $2.9 million under a multi-party security agreement.
Unsecured creditors, meanwhile, were estimated to be owed at least $2.1m, although the figure did not include contingent claims from landlords, Inland Revenue penalties and interest, intercompany debts and receivables.
Other creditors listed by liquidators include the Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) and Scentre Properties NZ, which owns Westfield malls.
Pronk and Farquhar estimated unsecured creditors may receive “0% in the dollar”.
In total, the group of companies owed about $5.94m to creditors.
Pronk and Farquhar expected the liquidation to be completed in the next five years.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.