In March, it was announced that Scales Corporation, New Zealand's largest apple producer, had made a takeover bid for the Villa Maria winery. Now various media report that the owners of Villa Maria, the New Zealand company FFWL, have been placed in receivership. FFWL belongs to the founder of Villa Maria, Sir George Fistonich.
According to the reports, two New Zealand banks, ANZ and Rabobank NZ, have applied for receivership of FFWL as creditors. It is not known how much FFWL owes.
Villa Maria's activities as a wine estate are not affected by this, Calibre Partners, the bankruptcy trustees, say. The company works profitably both nationally and internationally. As late as last year, the wine estate had sold about 31 hectares of land to generate capital for further growth. Villa Maria's international subsidiaries are also not affected by the receivership.
A sale of the wine estate seems to be inevitable now, however, and the administrators are still looking for a buyer. It is now also clear that the wine estate is to be sold at 100 percent. The receivers are currently working on a valuation of the wine company. Most recently, there was talk about a value of about AU$200 million.
It is not yet known if the offer of Scales Corporation will be maintained.
Villa Maria was founded in 1961 by Sir George Fistonich and is one of the most important wine companies in New Zealand with about 330 hectares of vineyards in Marlborough and Auckland. The company's brands include Villa Maria, Esk Valley, Leftfield, Vidal and Thornbury. The most important export market is Great Britain. In 1985, the winery already went into receivership once - voluntarily - but was able to recover in 1986 and from then on began its development into the company it is today. aw
