Shareholders of Ninox 'told to go'

Gary Hannam, the main financier of Ninox Television, and two of its shareholders tell a different story about the collapse of the television production company.

Ninox made hit reality television shows such as Sensing Murder, Location Location, Location and Mitre 10 Dream Home.

In February when its financier, Hannam-backed Tanlay, called in the receivers it had seasons of three shows half-delivered.

The company is owned a third each by its directors, John McEwen, Pauline Downie and David Baldock.

Baldock and Downie say Ninox was meeting its debt repayments, and there was a verbal agreement to repay Tanlay $600,000 that was due in from overseas programme sales in the first part of this year.

However it wasn't put in writing, the pair say.

Meanwhile McEwen owed the company $400,000, and Downie as finance director was trying to get the books squared.

It was agreed an independent director would be brought in to help solve governance issues.

Two weeks later he and Downie were presented with legal papers asking them to resign immediately and sell down their shares, with the new independent director appointed as GM, Baldock says.

Accusations about his performance were made, "none of which are even in the slightest bit true".

There was an issue over the ranking of his security over the company, he says, because as Tanlay had the bigger security it should have ranked second behind the bank. But it was being sorted, Baldock says.

However Hannam, owed $1.1 million, says the company was in breach of its loan agreement.

He says it emerged on receivership that there was a deficit of funds to complete the productions. "It required new productions to be commissioned to pay the debts on the old ones."

If Tanlay as the lender had not stepped in there would have been company failures among the small suppliers who wouldn't have been paid, he says.