Mark Hotchin's comeback plan

Mark Hotchin. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Former Hanover Finance head Mark Hotchin is trying to resurrect his career from his new base on the Gold Coast, despite an order that has frozen all his personal assets.

The under-fire businessman confirmed to the Weekend Herald yesterday that he was acting as a broker in some property deals in Queensland.

And he confirmed that one of the deals involved Miami One, in the heart of the Gold Coast shopping strip familiar to many Kiwi tourists.

The 7800 sq m retail centre, which includes a Coles supermarket and other chain stores, was placed in receivership nearly three years ago and is still looking for a new owner.

Mr Hotchin said he was "just trying to earn a buck", and it was not realistic for Hanover investors to expect him to stop "eating or working".

It had been almost three years "since Hanover was earning".

"I can't just stop and have the family starve. I've got to keep moving ... I need to get on with my life, the same as everybody else has to ..."

Mr Hotchin and his business partner, London-based businessman Eric Watson, are also still operating a small finance company, FAI Money.

The company, which used to be part of Hanover, stopped taking money from the public last March, but according to Mr Hotchin, it is still doing "a little bit" of lending to consumers and small businesses.

He also confirmed he remained friendly with former Hanover executive and Strategic Finance boss Kerry Finnigan, and said it was "quite likely" they would team up again.

As part of a media blitz this week, Mr Hotchin has claimed he is now broke as a result of the Securities Commission's decision to freeze his assets just before Christmas.

He said he understood the rationale behind such a move, but was appalled that it was used in his own case, given that the authorities had yet to lay any charges against him.

While Mr Hotchin was confident the order would soon be lifted, he insisted his assets "aren't that significant anyway".

"Obviously there are debts etc, and I've got a fairly pressing bill from the Inland Revenue."

While he conceded a family trust still owned a substantial property on Waiheke Island, he claimed he had pocketed few proceeds from the sale last year of his home in Parnell, and several other assets.

Property records show his Parnell home was sold to Natural Dairy founder Jack Chen, the businessman behind the failed bid for the Crafar farms empire, and his wife for $4 million in the middle of last year.

"All that money went into the bank, to the mortgage," Mr Hotchin said. "And don't forget we put a lot of money into Hanover and it had to come from somewhere - people conveniently forget that."

He claimed he had learned "many lessons" as a result of the Hanover debacle, but also continued to insist there had been a lot of unfair comment and "misinformation" about the company's demise.

"Apart from anything else, a lot of it is about perception. That probably sounds shallow, but the reality of going to Fiji at that time [for his 50th birthday bash] was reasonably minor from a cost perspective, but of course it looked terrible."

He agreed many investors were still not convinced he was truly sorry, and said he could only assume "it must be in my delivery". However, many family friends, including friends of his mother, had lost money as a result of Hanover's demise.

"I live and breathe this every day. I absolutely 100 per cent feel the pain, but equally I thought I had found a solution. I thought we'd delivered them something [the sale of assets to Allied Farmers] that was going to give them back 78c in the dollar. And frankly, in this environment, I thought that was pretty good."

He admitted he was looking forward to putting behind him investigations by the Securities Commission and Serious Fraud Office, and "a couple of minor lawsuits".

His "poor lawyers" had been working extremely hard.

He said he and his wife Amanda had "probably got closer". He was enjoying having time to help her, including taking his children to school.

"I'd like to get that all straightened out and then get back to life. Just some normality would be kind of good."