Space tour company Actura NZ, Australia collapse: debts of $3.6m identified, recovery chances unknown

Castor Bay resident Deb Lawson, 49, with her son James, 15, is among more than 270 New Zealand parents affected by the collapse of Actura New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

Creditors of the tour company that sold student trips to Nasa’s headquarters in Houston are owed $3.6 million from the business whose director blamed the pandemic, liquidity challenges, and failure to secure investment funding.

The initial liquidator’s report on Actura New Zealand from accountant Larissa Logan at Fixity Restructuring and Insolvency has just been issued.

It explains what went wrong at the Kiwi arm of the business which has resulted in more than 270 families in this country potentially losing their $14,000/each payment for enrolment fees to Actura.

Charles (Tin) Chung Chung, the sole director of Actura New Zealand, attributed the company’s failure to liquidity challenges the business faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, Logan’s report said.

A high level of refunds had to be made but costs had already been incurred. He urgently sought investment funding but that did not eventuate, Logan said.

Chung is undergoing a personal insolvency process in Australia and it’s too early to say whether any claims by New Zealand creditors will result in payouts.

Logan said Actura Group provided education for students here, in Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The New Zealand business ran educational trips for school pupils to locations including Nasa facilities in the United States as well as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, she said.

A group of New Zealand creditors joined to raise funds for initial liquidation costs. Those creditors bought shares in Actura Australia, the shell entity, to have the ability to appoint a liquidator over the New Zealand business, she wrote.

A large amount of Logan’s time had been spent dealing with creditor queries, assessing and reviewing the books of the business, and ascertaining what assets were available.

Actura New Zealand’s parent entity in Australia was placed in liquidation by its shareholders on June 14. That same day, the three New Zealand employees were sent letters terminating their employment. That also confirmed there were no funds available to pay employees or creditors.

Logan has been liaising with an auctioneer to assess the potential to realise the value of the FlipRobots - individual robot companions that were designed to accompany each student on the trips - but she noted that codes were “required for the FlipRobots to function”.

She has written to all major banks and financial institutions seeking details of bank accounts operated by the company.

Assets of the New Zealand entity are listed at $3.6m but most of that is “related party receivables” and the liquidator cannot say if any of it can be recovered to offset debts.

Inventory is listed at $26,000.

Liabilities are $3.5m to unsecured creditors. That is essentially the amount of money owed to all the families whose children wanted to go on tours.

How much of that can be repaid is not yet known. Preferential creditors, who stand ahead of unsecured creditors, are listed as being owed a further $75,000. Employees are owed nothing in holiday pay or wages.

The names of the many people who paid for the trips appear at the end of the report, with the names of Inland Revenue, the Accident Compensation Corporation and Westpac New Zealand.

Synnex New Zealand had a PPSR Registration over the business but that was discharged this month.

Inland Revenue is claiming $75,000 from Actura.

Another report will be filed in six months, updating people on what the liquidator has been able to achieve in terms of asset recovery.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.