Perth-based agribusiness managed investment scheme operator Rewards Group has gone into receivership, with The West Australian newspaper reporting the company owes the National Australia Bank around A$24m (US$20.2m).
After its collapse on May 16, an emergency Supreme Court hearing on 21 May gave administrators two weeks grace from rental payments, allowing them to consider the future of the group's thousands of acres of leased land on its 45 projects around the country.
The administrators are in negotiations to secure funding which would allow them to complete urgent maintenance on the group's agricultural schemes.
'In my opinion there are presently reasonable prospects of successfully concluding negotiations and obtaining funding,' said Martin Jones of administrator Ferrier Hodgson.
'If we give notices (regarding the termination of leases), third parties are unlikely to be willing to fund our administration because the head leases are critical to the Rewards companies and the schemes.'
Rewards has mango and red grapefruit plantations in Kununurra, mangoes and stonefruit farms in Dandaragan, Western Australia and Queensland and strawberry plantations in Victoria and Queensland.
Contractors are frustrated with the administrator's bid to win more time, with one claiming he had not received rent from Rewards since January and was owed A$540,000.
Mano Babiolakis of Global Rewards, a Rewards Group subsidiary which market grapefruit, stonefruit and mangoes internationally, said the company would continue to work for its stakeholders.
'Gobal Rewards continues to fulfill its marketing obligations to the best of our ability to ensure that all stakeholders continue to achieve value,' Mr Babiolakis told Fruitnet.com.
