Creditors asked to agree over debts

Creditors of Matamata building business Stanley Construction (Waikato) have been asked to reach an agreement over debts so receivership or liquidation is avoided. Photo / Allen Winter

Creditors of Matamata building business Stanley Construction (Waikato) have been asked to reach an agreement over debts so receivership or liquidation is avoided.

Jared Booth of McDonald Vague wrote to creditors seeking their agreement over money Stanley owed and saying the builders' directors had sought assistance.

"Stanley Construction (Waikato) has operated under significant financial pressure for some time, being reliant on financial support from the Stanley Group and its shareholders and the good will of the company's bankers," Booth wrote to creditors.

"This situation has resulted from significant losses incurred from a project completed in 2013 and insufficient subsequent work and margins to allow such losses to be cleared.

"The directors are keen to avoid the expense of receivership or liquidation and may need to reconsider these options if creditors take precipitate action," he said.

Other companies in the group continued to trade normally, Booth said.

Stanley has a modular division, which supplies prefabricated housing components.

A creditors' meeting is due on March 23 and formal documentation was to be sent out last week.

Phil Twyford, Labour's housing spokesman, was unhappy to hear about Stanley's situation.

"New Zealand urgently needs the quality, cost and productivity gains that modern offsite manufacturing can bring to home construction." He said Stanley was an innovative firm.

Group managing director Kevin Stanley said Stanley Construction had no ongoing building projects or unfinished work outstanding.

"We are optimistic the creditors' compromise will be successful, and if it is there will be no need for a liquidation or receivership."