KEY POINTS:
Lombard Finance and Investments' moratorium plan has been rejected by its trustee, Perpetual Trust, who last night called in the receivers.
Lombard, a subsidiary of listed Lombard Group, owes $127 million to 4400 secured debenture investors and unsecured note holders.
Last week it said it was unable to meet upcoming repayments to investors and would seek a moratorium in order to trade its way out of difficulty.
However that plan was yesterday binned by Perpetual Trust.
"A detailed review of the company by Perpetual Trust with independent advice determined there was no compelling reason for a moratorium to proceed, and that the interests of investors will be better served by appointing receivers to independently address the issues the company has," said Perpetual Trust chief executive Louise Edwards.
Lombard Asset Finance, Lombard Property Holdings and Lombard Asset Finance No 2 have also been placed in receivership. "The receivership does not impact on Lombard Group Ltd," said Edwards in a statement.
PricewaterhouseCoopers partners John Fisk and John Waller have been appointed receivers.
Lombard, the 17th finance company to either go into receivership or otherwise default on repayments to investors in the last two years, lent mostly to the property development sector.
The company is understood to have large exposures to developments in Wellington, Hawkes Bay and Waikato.
Filings to the Companies Office late last year indicated the quality of its $137 million loan book had deteriorated sharply during the second half of 2007.
Companies Office records also indicate Lombard is owed money by Blue Chip-related companies and by Blue Chip founder Mark Bryers.
Last week it was reported that Lombard Finance, whose directors include former justice ministers Sir Douglas Graham and Bill Jeffries, was seeking reinvestments and new money up until a day or two before it said it could not meet repayments.
Lombard Finance's receivers will prepare and send investors a report on their initial findings as soon as possible, Edwards said.
