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Anne Gibson: NZ Herald property editor on Du Val Group being placed into statutory management · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Property developer Duval Group has been placed in statutory management,
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  Speaker 2: which is a pretty unusual move by the government. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: it's so unusual the Governor General has to sign off
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  Speaker 2: it and sign off on it and Gibson is The
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  Speaker 2: Herald's property editor and with us hey Ann Hey Heather
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  Speaker 2: now the Minister when signing off on this himself says
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  Speaker 2: that part of it is to stop the liquidators quarreling
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  Speaker 2: with each other over various parts of the business. But
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  Speaker 2: it's got to be more than that, right, m.
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  Speaker 3: Very good question. We don't really know because we don't
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  Speaker 3: have access to the initial Receivers and Managers report which
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  Speaker 3: PwC handed to the High Court at Hamilton last Friday.
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  Speaker 3: So that was a bit of a lightning world for
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  Speaker 3: publicity on develop We all thought that in the media
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  Speaker 3: that we might get a copy of that report, but
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  Speaker 3: in fact gone to PwC and to the if he
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  Speaker 3: may and saw the copy of that report and asked
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  Speaker 3: the Minister for it as well, and it hasn't been released,
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  Speaker 3: so we don't really know what's going on here. We
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  Speaker 3: know that it is complex and serious.
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  Speaker 2: What would be the reason for them sitting on it
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  Speaker 2: and not releasing it?
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  Speaker 3: Don't know and neither does a minister. So I said
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  Speaker 3: to Andrew Bailey, have you seen the pw C report?
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  Speaker 3: And he said he certainly had significant advice from the
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  Speaker 3: Financial Markets Authority and making a decision like this, which
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  Speaker 3: was to take it to cabinet and he said yes,
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  Speaker 3: he had access to information. I asked him how worried
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  Speaker 3: was he is a minister when he read that report
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  Speaker 3: and he said, as a result, he made the recommendation
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  Speaker 3: to Cabinet that they pass this quite unusual thing order
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  Speaker 3: in council, as you say, signed off by the Governor General,
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  Speaker 3: based on the advice that he received.
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  Speaker 2: Today he says he's concerned about the Devile Group because
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  Speaker 2: of allegations of misconduct. Are those allegations in the past
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  Speaker 2: or are those allegations currently.
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  Speaker 3: Well, he said it's obviously serious enough for him to
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  Speaker 3: take the recommendation and seek the cabinet approval. And he
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  Speaker 3: said what the Cabinet was keen on doing was protecting
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  Speaker 3: the interests of all creditors. Now, he said, there are
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  Speaker 3: a number of developments. There's property developments in Auckland, mainly
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  Speaker 3: apartments in South Auckland and maybe West Auckland too, and
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  Speaker 3: he wanted to ensure where possible that those were completed.
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  Speaker 3: And his words were, you don't go on a journey
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  Speaker 3: like this without significant concerns.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Are Kenyon Clark and his wife speaking.
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 3: I've been putting questions to them since the FMA moved
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  Speaker 3: on them on the second and the police were at
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  Speaker 3: their house as well. I've been putting questions to Charlotte
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  Speaker 3: and Kenyon Clark, to the chairman of Duval, John Dalzel,
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  Speaker 3: and to Owen Culiny, who is a director of the
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  Speaker 3: company and a lawyer based in the White Catto, and
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  Speaker 3: we haven't had any response at all, and it may
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  Speaker 3: be that they cannot talk given the fact that there
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  Speaker 3: are interim receivers, managers and now statutory managers involved in
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  Speaker 3: the So this is highly unusual because the last time
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  Speaker 3: I could find that something like this occurred was fourteen
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  Speaker 3: years ago. Were the couple of entities of South Canterbury
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  Speaker 3: Finance right?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Okay, that was a big deal. Hey, and thank
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  Speaker 2: you very much, really appreciated. Anne Gibson the Herald's property editor.
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