Du Val Group in interim receivership after Financial Markets Authority court action

The High Court has put Auckland apartment developer Du Val Capital Partners and other Du Val Group companies into interim receivership after an application from the Financial Markets Authority.

The interim receivership orders were also made in respect of property developers Kenyon Clarke and his wife, Charlotte Clarke.

Police were seen entering the couple’s place of residence in Remuera today.

Kenyon and Charlotte Clarke in a photo supplied to the Herald on Sunday's Spy magazine in 2021. Photo / Supplied

When BusinessDesk rang the doorbell at the gated home this morning Clarke said “see ya later ... go away.”

Police at the scene would not say what they were there for, but carried filing boxes and other empty canisters, BusinessDesk reported.

A statement from the FMA said interim receivers were generally appointed to seek clarity around the financial position of a company or group of companies.

PwC’s John Fisk, Stephen White and Lara Bennett are the interim receivers.

PwC will provide an interim report to the court within 10 days.

The court also approved the authority’s request for asset preservation orders. These were requested to support the investigation into Du Val Group.

The authority said it would make no further comment.

About 120 investors put money into Du Val entities, it said.

The company in a 2021 video described itself as one of New Zealand’s leading build-to-rent and apartment construction companies.

The Clarkes had appeared to be working on a video series called The Property Developers.

“At work, Kenyon is like a bull in a China store,” Charlotte Clarke said in the video.

“I lost it all and had to start right again from my beginnings,” Kenyon Clarke added.

He said in the video he wanted to build a multibillion-dollar business and give away a billion dollars too.

Police at the Clarke residence in Remuera, central Auckland, at around noon today. Photo / Alex Burton

Du Val said last month it had developed nearly 1000 apartments in Auckland and was one of this country’s largest private residential developers.

Chief executive Charlotte Clarke said the business built low-cost homes.

But the group was “technically insolvent” last September.

The property developer in February this year was offering 200 million $2 shares to convert lenders’ debt from investors in its mortgage and build-to-rent (BTR) funds to equity in a restructured Du Val Property Group.

The Financial Markets Authority last year warned Du Val Capital about misleading and deceptive statements to investors in a mortgage fund.

FMA officers at a Du Val property address in Auckland on Friday 2 August, 2024 New Zealand Herald photograph by Alex Burton

Du Val may have breached the law at the time by misleading or deceptive conduct to investors in the Du Val Mortgage fund, the FMA alleged two years ago.

“The FMA considers that investors have been given a misleading impression of the reasons for Du Val Capital Partners suspending cash distributions on the fund and proposing instead to convert cash distributions into units in the fund, pending a potential public listing.

“The FMA considers investors may also have been misled about their rights in relation to the suspension,” a statement back then said.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.