KEY POINTS:
Today's announcement that LDC Finance has been placed in receivership makes it the eighth company to collapse in 16 months and the fourth in a fortnight.
Investors with the eight companies are owed $1.14 billion.
Receiverships announced in the current shake-out in the industry are:
* September 4: LDC Finance Ltd trustee Perpetual Trust calls in PriceWaterHouseCoopers as receivers. The company has 995 depositors and debenture holders owed $19.3 million, and assets of $23.8m.
* August 30: Richard Agnew and Anthony Boswell, partners at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, appointed as receivers of Five Star Consumer Finance. Around 3,000 investors are believed to be caught up in the collapse.
* August 29: Property Finance, which has debentures of over $80 million and loans of over $630 million. It reported on Friday that it was in deep trouble and unlikely to be able to honour its debts.
* August 21: Nathans Finance, owing $166 million to around 6000 investors. Nathans was a wholly owned subsidiary of vending technology company VTL Group Ltd which the day before the receivership announced it was insolvent due to a Companies Office investigation of Nathans.
* July 2: Specialist property financier Bridgecorp, after defaulting on repayments of some term investments due to investors -- owing about $500m to 18,000 investors.
Late in July, investors were told they could receive anything between 25c and 74c for each dollar invested, with the wide range partly due to complex offshore investments.
The receivers said that as at June 30, Bridgecorp's loan book comprised 69 loans totalling $393m, with many of the better quality loans sold off.
* August 2006: Tauranga-based finance company Western Bay, owing more than $48 million to investors and having lent $53m in around 10,000 of loans.
In December receivers announced a second payment to debenture holders, estimating an eventual recovery of 81c to 82c in the dollar.
* June 2006: Provincial Finance. Move seen as best way to protect the interests of debenture stock holders, who had invested $300m with Provincial.
Draft accounts for the year to March 31 had shown an after-tax loss of $36m after providing for $85m in bad and doubtful debts.
This month, receivers said debenture holders had now been paid 57.5c in the dollar -- a total of $170m -- and continued to believe that debenture holders should receive most of their principal back by way of dividends.
* May 2006: National Finance 2000. The company held deposits of $25.5m on behalf of 2026 investors, and had made loans totalling $27.3m to 3765 individuals or companies.
In March this year, receiver said secured investors had received back 40c in the dollar at that stage.
- NZPA
