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Bridgecorp founder Rod Petricevic was still trying to stave off the liquidation of the failed finance company's Australian operations this week as New Zealand investors learned they may recoup as little as a quarter of their money.
On Tuesday, Bridgecorp's New Zealand receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers told 14,500 investors they would recover 25c to 74c in the dollar of their $430 million in debentures.
Reasons included more than $70 million in advances from the New Zealand operation to Bridgecorp's Australian businesses, which was not expected to be recovered.
The same day, Petricevic and Bridgecorp's other Australian directors were putting a restructuring plan to creditors at a meeting in Sydney.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia, which is handling the receivership of nine of Bridgecorp's Australian businesses, said the directors had applied for an extension before creditors voted on liquidation.
"We have a letter from [the directors] saying: 'We're working on a proposal and we have engaged professional advisers to help us do that,"' said PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Phil Carter.
Bridgecorp's directors have 21 days to provide a detailed proposal or deed of company arrangement (DOCA) and another creditors' meeting will be held within two months to consider it.
Carter did not know exactly what kind of proposal Bridgecorp's directors were working on but downplayed Australian news reports that it would amount to an attempted resuscitation.
He said DOCAs usually involved putting "a better alternative" to liquidation to creditors. "In different situations that may involve companies being restarted. I would have thought that's less likely here."
Meanwhile, receivers for Bridgecorp Finance, which raised funds from Australian investors, have written off loans made to former Australian test cricketer Craig McDermott in the 18 months before its collapse.
McDermott was the largest borrower, with A$18 million of the total A$25 million in loans outstanding when Bridgecorp's Australian arm went into receivership on July 3, owing 1000 investors A$24.5 million.
Ferrier Hodgson said about A$10 million of Bridgecorp Finance's outstanding loans could be recovered.
