Christchurch-based Aether Pacific Pharmaceuticals (APP) is facing liquidation with creditors owed nearly NZ$9 million.
The company formerly known as Medical Kiwi, which operates a cultivation facility and a clinical network, called in administrators last month after hitting financial difficulties.
The Press reports the firm’s liabilities include $63,000 owed to staff in wages and holiday pay, $176,000 to the Inland Revenue, and a $4.5m preferential security to Emichrome, the private family company of billionaire investor Kie Chi Wong.
As the majority secured creditor, Emichrome must support any proposal to restructure the company but has indicated it will not, meaning the administrators are likely to recommend APP goes into liquidation at a meeting to be held in December or January.
That would trigger a sale of assets including 500kg of cannabis and patents held by subsidiary company Hardie Health, which is already in liquidation.
At a creditors’ meeting this week, administrators presented an itemised estimate of the company’s assets with a book value of $10.4m, although $2m of plant and equipment were estimated to be worth just $450,000 while $4.5m of subsidiary shares were assigned as “unknown”.
The market value of the cannabis, described as “of varying quality”, was also undetermined.
At the meeting, investors asked executive chairman Aldo Miccio and founding director Peter Win about bank statements which appeared to show they were both paid in October and November when staff were not.
Miccio disputed the claims and said the pair welcomed the administrators’ investigation.
The watershed meeting is likely to be held in the next two months, with creditors able to vote on liquidation or a deed of company assignment (DOCA).
