Jean Hubbard (r) shown with a supporter in 2010. Photo / NZME.
Jean Hubbard (r) shown with a supporter in 2010. Photo / NZME.
Jean Hubbard, the Timaru widow of Allan Hubbard who founded the now-failed South Canterbury Finance empire, has appeared as part of a land sale just approved by the Overseas Investment Office.
Retrospective consent has been granted for the $6.2 million sale of a block of Canterbury land in 2012, ina deal with British and New Zealand interests.
Margaret Jane Hubbard, also known as Jean, was married to Hubbard, late founder of South Canterbury Finance.
The firm's 2011 collapse led to a $1.5 billion taxpayer bail-out. Her name has now appeared - along with the Ashburton District Council and British man Andrew Phillip Turney - as the vendors of two blocks of Canterbury land.
Assets involved were a stake in Balrath Partnership, listed as owning 780ha of land in the Canterbury rural area of Mayfair and a further 14ha at Arundel Rakaia Gorge Rd near Ashburton. Consent was given for assets to be sold to British and local interests - including Turney - for $6.2 million.
"The applicant is a partnership that owns Balrath Farm, which is used for dairy farming. Two transactions have been granted consent retrospectively," the OIO said.
