Serepisos faces bankruptcy notices

Terry Serepisos. Photo / Getty Images

Troubled property tycoon Terry Serepisos says yesterday's bankruptcy notices were the result of a personal vendetta and he has always promised to pay the money.

FM Custodians applied for the bankruptcy notices and was issued them in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. Mr Serepisos has two weeks to figure out how to pay over $6 million or face bankruptcy.

Once the notices were served on Mr Serepisos, he would commit an act of bankruptcy if he did not pay or reach a compromise with FM Custodians, the Dominion Post reported.

The chairman of the firm overseeing loans to Mr Serepisos' companies Don McBeath said the notices were a precaution and discussions were continuing in the hopes of reaching an arrangement for payment.

Mr Serepisos, who was said to have personally guaranteed the loans to two of his companies, said he had told FM Custodians the money would be paid in the next few weeks.

"I have never said we will not pay."

Five of his Century City companies, including the one that owns the Wellington Phoenix soccer team, are due in court on Monday as part of an Inland Revenue claim to liquidate them for not paying a debt of more than $3.5 million in tax and penalties.

- NZPA