Further bids on Crafar farms likely

The receivers for the Crafar empire are expecting further tenders will be lodged before bids close for the farms in about two hours.

Michael Stiassny and Brendon Gibson from KordaMentha said there had been significant interest in the 16 Crafar farms and expectations were that a number of further tenders would be placed before tenders close at 4pm.

Already state-owned Landcorp has announced its intention to bid for the farms, but denied it was a Government-directed move to derail UBNZ's bid for the properties.

Receivers signed a conditional sale agreement with May Wang's UBNZ - which is 80 per cent owned by New Zealand-based UBNZ Trustee Ltd and 20 per cent by Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings Ltd - for the farms in May.

The deal is subject to OIO approval and the absence of a better offer.

Allan Crafar told NZ Herald yesterday he was confident he could come up with the more than $200 million he needs to settle his debts by 4pm, but today said he was too busy to talk.

Gibson said assessing the offers would take some time. The receivers said they had no further comment to make until such time as they had made the decision.

- NZ HERALD