Terry Serepisos companies owe millions, despite sale of all available assets

Monday, 7 March 2016

Terry Serepisos was discharged from bankruptcy in late 2014.

Companies owned by former bankrupt property developer Terry Serepisos are being wound up, leaving creditors more than $2 million out of pocket.

Liquidators Jeremy Morley and John Fisk of PricewaterhouseCoopers have applied to remove 13 companies from the Companies Office register, which together still owe $2.02 million to unsecured creditors.

Secured creditors including ANZ, Allied Finance, South Canterbury Finance and Marac Finance were able to get some of their funds back through the sale of property, and have subsequently discharged their claims.

Morley and Fisk concluded in the final report there were no voidable transactions and no other matters that warranted further investigation.

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However, they said their review had been made 'somewhat more difficult given the poor state and age of the records provided to us'.

Serepisos, who starred in television show The Apprentice New Zealand, ran a commercial property empire which was hit hard in the global financial crisis.

He was declared bankrupt in 2011, owing more than $200 million.

When liquidators took over, they sold all available assets, which mainly consisted of land and buildings in the Wellington region.

They included the ASB Tower, the IBM Building Petone, the Farmers and old DEKA building in Cuba St, and apartments in the Century City apartment complex in Tory St.

Serepisos paid $23.5m for the ASB Tower building in 2006, before Wellington lawyer Mike Garnham snapped up the property for $22m six years later.

Wellington developer Mark Dunajtschik then bought the ASB Bank Tower from Garnham earlier mid-last year.

One of Serepisos' companies, Century City Developments, owned The old Prudential Assurance building in Lambton Quay and a number of chattels on the 14th floor of the ASB Tower - Serepisos' head office.

The company also provided management services to his other companies and was responsible for employing the majority of staff.

It also owned two cars, which were sold at auction.

The sale of Century City Developments' building, chattels and vehicles totalled about $58,600.

Serepisos was discharged from bankruptcy in late 2014.

In November of the same year, Serepisos started a new company - TSMD Trustee - under his birth name Eleftarious.

Three months later, he started another company - Titanium Trust Management - under the same name.

Coincidentally, the registered address for his new companies is Level 14, ASB Tower.

As of October 2015, Serepisos was still listed as living in Roseneath.

He has a credit record for money borrowed from the Public Trust - the collateral is the rent for a unit in the Century City apartment complex.

The final liquidators report also showed Century City Football, which held the A-League licence for the Wellington Phoenix club, still owes more than $1.9m.

This included seven preferential claims from unsecured creditors totalling $276,241, relating to unpaid wages and GST, and 11 from non-preferential unsecured creditors who are owed more than $1.6 million.

The company's A-League licence was relinquished to the Football Federation Australia in September 2011.

None of the unsecured creditors were paid.

Three of Serepisos' companies - Century City, Ivivi Interiors and Century City Huddart - were set up but did not trade.

The Inland Revenue Department has claimed $60,391 for unpaid GST against Century City Investments, while the remaining two unsecured creditors were owed $966.