It's hardly breaking news but The Press have reported today that Rodney Hide's good mate Dave Henderson may not be able to buy back the five central city properties he sold to the Christchurch City Council for an exorbitant $17 million in August last year.
Hendo has first right of refusal but as he is being chased by a load of angry creditors, I'd say Hendo has as much chance of buying back the properties as I have of taking a trip to the moon.
Yesterday no less than seven of his companies were involved in liquidation proceedings in the High Court. Of course there are a lot of Henderson companies to go after since he is director of nearly a hundred of them.
But Hendo's financial woes have not just happened overnight - he was already in the poo when Mayor Sideshow Bob Parker and his moronic council supporters decided to bail him out.
Indeed Sideshow Bob and his council chums seemed determined to turn a blind eye to Hendo's mounting financial problems -it's a pity they are not so obliging when we ordinary plebs have trouble paying the rates.
The chief executive of the Christchurch City Council, the silly Tony Marryatt, claimed at the time that 'it was irrelevant' what the council had paid for the properties because Dave Henderson would 'buy them back off us'. I said at the time that this was just 'empty PR bluster' and so it has proved.
Just a few weeks earlier, in July 2008, the troubled Hanover Finance sent the receivers in to Hendo's ridiculous Five Mile Village project near Queenstown - it has cost investors in Hanover in the region of $80 million.
Of course , you would of thought this development would of alerted Tony Marryatt to the reality that all was not well in Hendo's world.
Well, no , it didn't.
Marryatt, along with Sideshow Bob and incompetent councillors like Sue Wells and Barry Corbett still wanted to play fast and loose with other people's money and gave their mate Dave a $17 million bridging loan.
Hendo, laughably , says that 'like every property developer in the world right now, I face a number of challenges.'
That's right Dave - you are in debt up to your libertarian neck.
Hendo also said, in his defence, that 'sometimes people abuse the legal process or act very unfairly.'
Well, you have to give Hendo top marks for barefaced cheek.
Hendo has spent years tying up his creditors in legal red tape - he is an expert in it.
One of Hendo's favourite legal tactics is to get his lawyer to present the court with a last minute 'proposal' and then request an adjournment in proceedings. The legal authorities though may at last be losing their patience with this delaying tactic. Associate Judge Rob Osbourne warned yesterday that since Henderson's companies had been fighting liquidation proceedings since March, he had 'no great sympathy for the last minute proposal' - but he did give Henderson a week to come up with a financial solution.
As for 'acting unfairly', Dodgy Dave's failure to pay his bills is hardly the actions of a man who acts 'fairly'. Indeed there are a number cases in which he has simply denied that he owes anything.
Hendo appears to be turning into a local version of Walter Mitty because he is claiming that he will 'soon be making some announcements in regard to the first property to be purchased back for the development of apartments.'
Has Hendo suddenly found a new source of funds or, as is more likely, is he just making things up as he goes along?
The bottom line is, thanks to Sideshow Bob and idiots like Marryatt, Corbett and Wells , the Christchurch City Council will be stuck with five properties that are worth considerably less than what the council paid for them.
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