Bridgecorp Fiji resort likely to be a write-off

The receivers for Rod Petricevic's Bridgecorp have now all but written off the failed finance firm's biggest loan, $106.6 million sunk into the ill-starred Momi Resort development in Fiji.

In an update late last month to Bridgecorp's 14,500 investors who are owed about $460 million, PricewaterhouseCoopers' Colin McCloy and Maurice Noone noted media reports that the first mortgage holder over the development, the Fiji Provident Fund, had now acquired the property following an unsuccessful auction in August.

PwC were continuing to investigate potential actions to recover funds, but the outcome remained uncertain, "and it is likely that complete loss will be suffered on this loan exposure".

"Political developments in Fiji continue to impact upon the availability to progress any recovery efforts."

Delays and other issues relating to the realisation of Bridgecorp's overseas assets, including two Australian hotels, meant PwC was unable to come up with a a reliable estimate of the timing or amount of likely returns to investors but McCloy and Noone reiterated their view that debenture holders would receive less than 10c in the dollar.

Meanwhile, in an update to investors in National Finance 2000, whose failure in early 2006 marked the beginning of the $5 billion meltdown in the finance company sector, McCloy advised of a final 9c payout, taking total returns to 49c in the dollar.

In what he said would be the final update to investors as the receivership neared its final stages, McCloy also advised investors that National Finance 2000's boss Allan Ludlow and another man, who has name suppression, were now facing Serious Fraud Office charges.