Failed Serepisos companies owe $50m

Terry Serepisos Photo / supplied

Two failed companies belonging to Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos have more than $50 million of debt on their books, according to the receivers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' John Fisk and Richard Longman say Maison Property Holdings and 79 Manners Street owe creditors about $50.8 million, in their first reports on each entity.

Equitable Property Holdings called in the receivers in May, and is owed $14.4 million from both entities, and First Mortgage Trust is owed $1 million by Maison.

Failed lender South Canterbury Finance Ltd. faces the brunt with lower-ranked loans of some $27 million to 79 Manners St, while ASB Bank is owed $5.4 million and ANZ National Bank has $3 million outstanding from the same company.

Maison owns the Maison Cabriole Apartments in Tory Street, Wellington, made briefly notorious when convicted multiple murderer Graeme Burton hid out there.

Other properties involved include the Ivivi building in Victoria St, which houses the student radio station, Radio Active, and the Renaissance Apartments in Manners St.

Some car parks at 70 Tory St were carved out by the receivers after 79 Manners St entered into a sale and purchase agreement relating to the Century City Hotel, which is located at 70-78 Tory St, the report said.

"The proceeds of this sale will be applied to the secured creditors over this asset with no funds available to the receivership," the report said.

"To ensure that the receivership did not affect the company's ability to complete the sale, EML (Equitable Mortgages) partially revoked their appointment of receivers over this specific asset only."

The building changed hands last week after it was offered as security on a loan from rival developer Mark Dunajtschik, and he has since put the property up for sale.

The receivers aren't optimistic about the prospects for recovery, saying in both cases it is unlikely there will be any proceeds left over for unsecured creditors.

Serepisos today got a reprieve on a personal bankruptcy bid, getting a month-long adjournment in the High Court. FM Custodians, which acts for the frozen Canterbury Mortgage Trust, agreed to push out the timeframe to try and reach some agreement.

Two other bids to liquidate Century City-related companies were also withdrawn.