Serepisos liquidation ends, creditors $2m short

Terry Serepisos, pictured in 2010, had lived the high-life of a property developer. Photo / NZPA

The liquidators of former bankrupt Terry Serepisos's Century City group have completed their wash-up of the property development, retailing and sports management businesses with about $2 million owing to unsecured creditors, having concluded there were no voidable transactions that could have been challenged.

Liquidators Jeremy Morley and John Fisk of PricewaterhouseCoopers have sought to have the 13 companies removed from the register of companies, noting in their final report that their work had been made "somewhat more difficult given the poor state and age of records."

Serepisos had lived the high-life of a property developer, with luxury homes and sports cars, the licence for the Wellington Phoenix football team and sponsorship of the 2009 Wellington Cup at Trentham racecourse that saw him rubbing shoulders with Prime Minister John Key among others. His address at the time was given as 11 Robieson St in the upmarket Wellington suburb of Roseneath, but according to Companies Office records for Titanium Trust Management, which lists Serepisos as sole shareholder and director, he now lives in the more modest suburb of Miramar.

At the time of his bankruptcy in September 2011, his portfolio of about 150 residential properties and more than six commercial buildings was valued at $232.5 million with debts totalling $204 million. He was discharged from bankruptcy in October 2014.

As recently as September last year, the liquidators had indicated there were a number of potential recovery actions related to potentially insolvent and related-party transactions, but in their final report they said investigations had thrown up no voidable transactions or matters that warranted further investigation.

Secured creditors including ANZ New Zealand, Allied Finance, South Canterbury Finance, and Marac Finance were able to claw back some of their funds through the sale of property and discharge their claims, and little was left over for the liquidators. The only secured creditor still registered was Executive Laundry (Wellington), with a claim against Century City Accommodation.

Century City Football had held the A-League licence for the Wellington Phoenix club, which was relinquished to the Football Federation Australia in September 2011.

The liquidators report shows the football company had seven preferential claims from unsecured creditors amounting to $276,241 relating to unpaid wages and GST, and 11 from non-preferential unsecured creditors owed about $1.6 million. Neither group got what they were owed. The Inland Revenue Dept had a claim for unpaid GST of $60,391 against Century City Investments, while the remaining unsecured creditors were owed smaller amounts.