Failed building company Arrow International owes creditors $46 million

An apartment block under construction by Arrow International in Wellington in March. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The liquidators of Arrow International are working through almost 500 claims from unsecured parties who say they're owed about $46 million from the failed building company.

BDO's Andrew Bethell, Andrew McKay and Colin Gower said employee wages of $730,000 and a tax bill of $553,000 were settled before their appointment as liquidators to the Arrow International entities.

Since their June appointment, $1.5 million has been paid to subcontractors of $4.5 million held in trust, with the balance held until projects are completed.

The firm's directors and shareholders called in BDO as voluntary administrators in February when tough trading conditions were compounded by a $4.5 million Building Disputes Tribunal decision that went against it.

Bethell, McKay and Gower were appointed liquidators after a creditors' meeting in June. The liquidators said they were assessing the near-500 claims received and expect to complete that before their next six-monthly report.

"However, initial indications are that accepted claims will be materially lower due to a number of factors including a number of principal and subcontractor claims submitted being out of date with reference to the outcome of projects they have been involved with," they said in their second report on the liquidation.

In their initial report as administrators, Bethell, McKay and Gower estimated there would be 826 unsecured creditor claims of about $39.3 million.

The first report estimated Arrow's assets at $43.8 million, of which $15.7 million was in accounts receivable, $13.2 million from investments in subsidiaries, and $7.9 million from related-party debts.

At that time, the liquidators estimated $40 million would be available for unsecured creditors.

Most other Arrow entities were excluded from the liquidation and the BDO liquidators said they are collecting what's owed to the parent company.

That included $213,000 between June and December and a further $677,000 from subsidiaries involved in the Portlink industrial park development in Christchurch.

Arrow's lender - ANZ Bank New Zealand - received $4 million from the settlement of lots at that development.

"We expect further receipts from settlements of the remaining property lots in the first five months of 2020," the liquidators said.

Some $382,000 owed to ANZ by the Arrow group at the time of liquidation was released in the June-December period, and the liquidators said the bank was repaid in full.

Performance bonds totalling $1.3 million were either released or called and paid, with one remaining bond of $326,000 uncalled and recognised as a contingent liability, the liquidators said.

A claim of $315,000 lodged by a trade creditor is being disputed in part by the liquidators, who have sought more information about the claim.