A committee of Ruapehu ski field creditors has failed to secure company funds to cover the cost of legal advice and representation, a move receivers said would have compromised the upcoming ski season.
The five-person liquidation committee, elected by creditors, is made up of life pass holder Roger Boyd, Ruapehu Skifields Stakeholders Association members Robert Krebs, Sam Clarkson and Jason Platt, alongside Whakapapa staff representative Peter Bayne.
The Ruapehu Skifields Stakeholders Association advocates that maintaining public ownership is the best way forward for the company.
According to a decision by High Court Judge Neil Campbell, the liquidation committee believes the company’s receivers, appointed by the Crown after it purchased ANZ’s debt for $1, were not validly appointed.
It also believes the best way forward for the Ruapehu field is through a scheme of arrangement that would see the current company continue to operate.
The committee isn’t paid but has a preferential claim over the Ruapehu Alpine Lifts assets for “necessary” expenses, which it says includes advice and legal representation to advance its interests.
In September the committee asked the liquidators, John Fisk and Richard Nacey of PWC, to confirm its legal costs could be covered out of existing funds, which the liquidators denied.
Fisk and Nacey took the view that ANZ, then Crown Regional Holdings, had security over its funds and that neither ANZ nor Crown Regional Holdings had approved the use of the funds to pay the committee’s legal costs in priority to their secured claim over those funds.
The funds are increasingly being transferred to the receivers, Brendon Gibson and Neale Jackson of Calibre Partners, with $2.5 million having been paid in October before any legal action was filed.
The committee filed legal action ahead of $500,000 being paid in December, claiming Fisk and Nacey would breach their duties by making the payment and saying the liquidators should seek directions from the court before making the payment.
The liquidators and receivers subsequently filed their own legal action, which was progressed with urgency on the ground that to be in the position to sell the ski fields, the receivers, who have taken over day-to-day operations, needed cash to maintain and manage the fields to be in a position to open this winter.
“To fund that maintenance and management, the receivers say they need access to the funds held by the liquidators. The receivers say the certainty of that funding is of critical importance,” the judgment said.
“They say that by the end of February 2024 they need certainty that they will receive the funds as agreed under the transition agreement. Without that certainty, and in the absence of any new funding for the receivership, the receivers will not be in a position from the end of February 2024 to incur obligations that will fall due in April 2024. That will have serious consequences for the ability to open the ski fields for the 2024 ski season or in future ski seasons.”
The $500,000 has been paid and the remaining balance of around $1 million is scheduled to be paid to receivers towards the end of April.
The committee’s application is yet to be heard.
The judge ultimately found that the committee wasn’t entitled to the funds still held by the liquidators.
Funding
Last week the Government announced it had agreed to provide $7 million in equity and loan funding to the ski fields, including giving likely Tūroa buyer Pure Tūroa $3.05 million to purchase the ski field’s assets.
Pure Tūroa’s purchase is dependent on it securing a concession from the Department of Conservation to operate in the Tongariro National Park.
Submissions on the concession have closed and the department is expected to report back in March or April, though the previous concession application took several years, not several months.
The remainder will go towards supporting the receivers to operate Tūroa and Whakapapa until Tūroa is sold and a viable option is found for Whakapapa, which doesn’t have a buyer lined up.
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones said it was the last taxpayer money Ruapehu Alpine Lifts would see.
“The Government cannot indefinitely sustain the ski fields. That is why Cabinet is signalling a clear end point. If no acceptable commercially led solution can be found within the next year, there will be no additional government funding for Ruapehu Alpine Lift’s Whakapapa ski operations.”
