South Canterbury Finance (SCF) receiver McGrathNicol has put the group's 75% owned subsidiary Face Finance on the block.
Face Finance, which specialises in plant and equipment finance for the road transport, aviation, earth moving and construction sectors from Auckland and Christchurch operations, had total loans net of impairment provisions worth NZ$196.9 million at the time of McGrathNicol's first receiver's report.
The report notes total assets of NZ$205 million and total liabilities of NZ$196.8 million leaving net assets of NZ$8.2 million. Face Finance was fully funded by SCF.
McGrathNicol's Kerryn Downey and William Black said Face Finance has operated largely on a standalone basis from the rest of the SCF group with a separate distribution network and customer relationships.
Downey and Black said a sale offered the opportunity to transition the business out of receivership and provide greater certainty to its customers. The sales process will be run by Deutsche Bank.
"The receivers have yet to announce the sale process for the consumer and commercial lending businesses of SCF, although they expect this process will commence within two to three months," said Downey and Black.
Senior managers Tim Murphy and Warrick Baxter are Face Finance's other shareholders.
(Update adds additional detail, link to receiver's report).
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