Businessman ordered to pay $32m in resort dispute

Mr van Heeren allegedly held on to assets worth at least US$47.5 million - including Taupo's Huka Lodge - when he severed a business partnership in 1991.

A Dutch businessman has been ordered to pay US$25 million ($32 million) as an interim payment in a legal scrap involving one of New Zealand's most luxurious resorts.

The High Court at Auckland has ordered Alexander van Herren, the honorary Dutch consul to Auckland between 1985 and 2012, to pay the sum to his former business partner, Johannesburg-based Michael Kidd.

Mr Kidd claims he got less than US$5 million when the pair severed ties in 1991, while van Heeren allegedly held on to assets worth at least US$47.5 million - including Taupo's Huka Lodge, Fiji's Dolphin Island retreat, and 32kg of gold.

Mr Kidd wanted a judge to rule he had an interest in half of these and the partnership's other assets when they went their separate ways. It is a claim he has chased since 1996 through courts in South Africa and New Zealand.

Mr Van Herren has denied he owes anything.

Justice John Fogarty ordered that the US$25 million payment was to be paid in New Zealand dollars to Kidd within a month

An account has also been ordered between the former business partners - which prevents the matter from going to trial - to determine the total amount due, which could be up to US$50 million.

Mr van Herren was also ordered to pay Mr Kidd's court costs.

Mr van Herren is widely acknowledged as the owner of Huka Lodge, a luxury resort which has hosted the likes of the Queen, Bill Gates and Pink Floyd.

When Mr van Heeren arranged the purchase of the lodge in 1984, he nominated a company he set up called Worldwide Leisure to take the title.

Worldwide Leisure's main shareholder is a Dutch company called Saraceno Holdings, which the Overseas Investment Commission in 2005 said was to hold shares in the lodge "as bare trustee" for van Heeren.

Mr Kidd lodged a caveat over Huka Lodge's title in February 2014, claiming a beneficial interest in the land.

The pair worked together in the international steel trade for about 15 years and acquired an empire of assets before parting ways in 1991.