The long saga involving Sensation Yachts seems finally near its end.
After months of apparently not paying its bills and previous attempts to force it into liquidation, Sensation was indeed ordered liquidated in late July. According to articles in the New Zealand newspaper The National Business Review, the order came after the approval of an application filed by Public Trust, New Zealand’s largest trustee organization. Interesting enough, Det Norske Veritas, which the paper says the yacht builder owes NZ$360,000 (about US$244,200), also reportedly applied to have Sensation liquidated, but the High Court in Auckland had already approved Public Trust’s submission.
Jollands Callander, a New Zealand firm specializing in insolvency services, is now in charge of the receivership.
The newspaper contacted Ivan Erceg, the managing director of Sensation, for comment and was told that there’s no way to know what the yard’s full debt is until creditors start to file claims. But he said he had already paid some companies and pledged that other creditors would receive funds. Among the companies he reportedly paid: the Cayman Islands firm that ordered three megayachts that were never built.
Even with all of this, Erceg expressed hope that he could save the yard, saying the problems were due to the credit crunch.
Whether or not he does save Sensation, there’s an employment dispute pending between Erceg and Paul Sills, Sensation’s former managing director, that is being delayed due to the liquidation. The National Business Review reports that Sills claims he is owed several thousand dollars’ worth of expenses from Sensation and was unfairly dismissed from his job, therefore Erceg is in breach of contract. Erceg is counter-suing Sills, claiming Sills breached his duties, misused confidential information, and engaged in misleading conduct.
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