KEY POINTS:
Ambitious Otago dairy conversion farm Big Sky Dairy Farms Ltd has been placed in receivership by the Bank of New Zealand.
Appointed receiver and chartered accountant Murray Frost, of Deloitte's Dunedin office, said the Maniototo business would continue as usual for the time being and the herd of 3000 would continue to be milked.
Big Sky's directors are Rodney Humphries and Alan Nicholas, of Auckland. Of the total 3.4 million shares, 1.13 million are held by Practice Management Trustee Ltd and Brookside Farm No2 Ltd.
Brookside director and 50 per cent shareholder Ewan Carr owned the original Patearoa property that was developed into Big Sky.
Two other companies, Cascade Capital Ltd and Main Farm Ltd, whose directors are Mr Humphries and Mr Nicholas, have also been placed in the receiver's hands by the BNZ.
Mr Carr said his company, Brookside, had successfully sought interim liquidation applications in the High Court at Dunedin against six companies, to protect assets while further investigations were under way.
The Patearoa farm was initially mooted in early 2001 as a "super farm" running up to 6000 cows on 1600ha using supplementary feed. It is understood to have been running 3000 cows on about 1300ha in recent times.
- NZPA
