Fiji investors push for $1 million owed

The Fiji Beach Resort & Spa continues to operate. Photo / Supplied

Investors in a Fiji resort are pushing to get more than $1 million they are owed.

Grant Watson, head of a new group of investors in the Fiji Beach Resort & Spa managed by Hilton, said a priority was to get finances flowing again.

The Villa Owners' Group met last week and wanted to recoup money owed from late last year and most of this year, Watson said this week.

Fiji's Hilton continues to operate although investors who own beachfront apartments at the Denarau Island resort are out of pocket.

A group of 141 New Zealanders, 52 Australians, 16 Americans, 30 people living in Fiji, one from Dubai and one from Canada poured millions into the resort developed by Neville Mahon of Greenlane.

Last month, both the development company and the business which paid investors went into receivership and KordaMentha was appointed.

Regular income payments and the benefit of a free 10-weeks-a-year stay in studios or villas were some of the benefits which investors had expected. The beachfront resort opened in 2006 and is continuing to operate successfully, despite problems behind the scenes.

Watson said the group had been working closely with KordaMentha receiver Grant Graham and representatives had also had "one brief meeting" with Mahon.

Priorities were to recoup more than $1 million owed from rental of their villas and studios from the last quarter of last year throughout this year.

The group also hoped to confirm certainty about the flow of funds which could be claimed under the receivership, Watson said.

It also wanted a new management agreement struck but any new deal must work for three parties, Watson said: the management business, the Hilton and villa owners.

It was also important to give prospective villa owners confidence, he said, referring to pre-purchase deals struck to sell villas in an expansion of the Hilton resort.

Villas were at various stages of completion when the receiverships were announced.

Mahon was hoping for full and final settlement on these properties to keep the cash rolling in as well as funding from his financiers.

Watson said another priority was completion of the resort's expansion.

He said the group was taking its own legal advice here and in Fiji and expected to announce further progress.