Carich's claim to be fought

Maori tertiary provider Te Wananga o Aotearoa says it will fight in court a $10 million claim against it by the receivers of collapsed training facility Carich.

"They're obviously trying to be hopeful," chief executive Rongo Wetere said yesterday, rejecting an offer of negotiation.

"Wait until [the receivers] get to court. I know the arrangement, so does Carich. As I've said previously, we're happy to defend it.

"I'm pretty relaxed about that, in fact I think they'll have some difficulty about that given the situation."

Carich was the country's largest private education provider before it went into voluntary receivership last year owing about $8.8 million.

More than 200 staff were left jobless and 3000 students without a school.

Carich joint receiver Kerryn Downey of KPMG confirmed yesterday that a claim for $10 million "plus" had been lodged against the wananga, and he was confident it would succeed.

But Mr Wetere dashed any hope that a legal battle could be avoided by out-of-court negotiations.

"The failure to perform was on the other side. We won't be doing any deals, you can tell him that."

The claim centres on an alleged breach of a joint-venture agreement under which Carich was to train 2500 students on behalf of the wananga.

Mr Downey said Mr Wetere "defaulted" on the contract just a week before the course started in March last year, "for reasons known only to himself".

"And that came as a huge shock and surprise to Carich", which had spent money on staff and advertising, Mr Downey said.

He said his objective was not to vindicate Carich or save its reputation, only to "maximise the recoveries on the assets".

"There are ... 240 to 250 employees who have claims approaching $1 million. There are unsecured creditors of likely another $6 million and I have very significant claims to settle there. So my statutory duty is to pursue them."

A receivers' report in December revealed about $1.9 million was owed to banks, financial and leasing services, and about $1.1 million to staff and Inland Revenue. They are first in line to be paid back.

About $5.7 million is owed to unsecured creditors.

The company's assets were valued at about $8.8 million at that time.

- NZPA