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The owner of NZ wine business Villa Maria has been put into receivership and share sale in the business will occur. Brendon Gibson and Neale Jackson of Calibre Partners (previously known as KordaMentha) have been selected as receivers of FFWL, Villa Maria’s parent firm.
Image Source: © Mist | Megapixl.com
Sir George and Karen Fistonich, along with Alan Stuart, are the owners of FFWL and are regarded as the developers of the New Zealand wine industry. In the early 1960s, Fistonich set up Villa Maria in Mangere suburb in Auckland.
If a firm is unable to pay its secured creditors, it can be placed into receivership. A secured creditor may nominate a receiver to sell the business assets if they have a financial claim on them.
Receivership will not affect winery or its global subsidiaries
Brendon Gibson, one of the receivers, emphasised that Villa Maria's domestic and foreign businesses, which had been in operation for 60 years, were in good shape. He stated that Villa Maria had been trading profitably and that step would not impact any of its winery or international subsidiaries.
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Villa Maria had been in the midst of a well-publicised search for a new investor, with Australian media claiming that the firm had hired a Swiss investment bank to find other wine firms and investment funds for a strategic stake in the company, which would give it a complete ownership.
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Villa Maria had been searching for a way to raise money. It had been debated within the company whether to make a new investment or sell shares, and it had now been agreed to sell all of its shares in Villa Maria Estate.
Share sale will be used to repay secured creditors
Rabobank and ANZ were amongst the safe creditors to buy the receivership and shares sale will be used to repay them.
Also read: Wine producer Villa Maria Estate looking for a buyer
Villa Maria's clients, vendors, employees, and directors will be supported by receivers via the process, Gibson added. He also noted that receivers would negotiate with the parties which had shown an interest in purchasing the shares to finish the receivership and the share sale as soon as possible, but this could take some time.
Scales Corporation Limited (NZX:SCL) , an apple exporter, was said to be one of the buyers in the running for the wine giant.
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Early reports indicated that rival wine firm Delegat, which is listed on the NZX, and privately held Indevin New Zealand, which has wineries in Marlborough and Hawke's Bay, might be potential trade buyers.
Few Australian private equity firms are also said to have been involved in the process as well.
