UBNZ, the company associated with Natural Dairy's bid to buy 20 Crafar farms, has had some good news by a High Court judge a week after the Serious Fraud Office said it was investigating transactions between the two companies.
Latitude Asia, a British Virgin Islands-registered company run by bankrupted Kiwi Barry Fraser and his sons, claimed it was owed $475,000, a 1 per cent commission on the price paid for the four Crafar farms UBNZ bought this year.
Latitude Asia claims it had an agreement with UBNZ director May Wang that it would receive 1 per cent of the sale price once the purchase had been settled, as well as 1 per cent on the sale of the farms Natural Dairy intended to buy, which could total millions.
UBNZ's purchase is being investigated by the Overseas Investment Office because it did not gain approval to buy the farms - a stamp needed when any foreign company buys more than $100 million of New Zealand-based assets.
Yesterday High Court Judge Roger Bell dismissed Latitude Asia's claim for $475,000.
UBNZ lawyer Paul Sills said this was good news for the company, which was still taking in the SFO's announcement.
Sills said Wang did not dispute money was owed by UBNZ to Fraser but the exact amount had yet to be agreed upon.
Sills said Wang had made it very clear that by "no stretch of the imagination" could Latitude Asia be considered a creditor of hers or UBNZ's.
Sills said this alleged agreement of commission between Wang and Latitude Asia did not exist.
Emails between Wang and Fraser were discussed in court yesterday, with Latitude Asia's lawyer Robert Hucker claiming the commission had been talked about in the correspondence.
Hucker said that despite Wang's claim she was looking for investors to fund the purchase of the farms, UBNZ's only backer was Jack Chen, Natural Dairy's former chief executive and co-chairman.
In separate proceedings, Latitude Asia is also claiming the same amount, $475,000, from Wang herself in an attempt to bankrupt the troubled property developer.
Farm sale commission claim rejected
Photo / Christine Cornege
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