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…

To use this website, cookies must be enabled in your browser. To enable cookies, follow the instructions for your browser below.

Facebook App: Open links in External Browser

There is a specific issue with the Facebook in-app browser intermittently making requests to websites without cookies that had previously been set. This appears to be a defect in the browser which should be addressed soon. The simplest approach to avoid this problem is to continue to use the Facebook app but not use the in-app browser.

This can be done through the following steps:

1. Open the settings menu by clicking the hamburger menu in the top right

2. Choose “App Settings” from the menu

3. Turn on the option “Links Open Externally” (This will use…

Worried that President-elect Donald Trump will curtail federal efforts to take on the nation’s medical debt problem, patient and consumer advocates are looking to states to help people who can’t afford their medical bills or pay down their debts.

“The election simply shifts our focus,” said Eva Stahl, who oversees public policy at Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that has worked closely with the Biden administration and state leaders on medical debt. “States are going to be the epicenter of policy change to mitigate the harms of medical debt.”

Good insurance is a defense against debt

New state initiatives may not be enough to protect Americans from medical debt if the incoming Trump administration…

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided $2.3 billion in debt assistance to distressed farmers, a new report shows. The debt relief was part of the $3.1 billion appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Farm Service Agency officials say they are using $250 million of the remaining funds to assist about 4,600 additional borrowers.

Those same officials said that the agency would consider using the remaining estimated balance of nearly $300 million for those distressed by natural disasters.

The Government Accountability Office published the report evaluating the U.S….

Trade creditors with security are owed $3.1m.

There are 598 unsecured creditors who are owed just over $34.9m. This includes $4.1m owing to trade creditors and $24.4m in intercompany payables.

“At this stage, it is unknown if there will be any funds available to make payment to unsecured creditors,” the report said.

The liquidator’s report also confirmed BlackRock had bought SolarZero for $110m from its Kiwi founders in a mid-2022 deal.

The price has not been previously disclosed, but the deal required Overseas Investment Office approval, implying it was above the OIO’s $100m assessment threshold.

Since the acquisition, BlackRock has injected a further $147.8m into the business, the report said.

Last…

A beloved Las Vegas liquidation store has opened a new location.

Nellis Outlet, the second location of Nellis Auction, opened Nov. 29 inside the Meadows Mall at 4000 Meadows Lane. The liquidation stores buy and resell returned items from places such as Amazon at highly discounted rates.

The store is open from Friday to Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Price-per-item changes daily: $7 on Friday, $5 on Saturday, $3 on Sunday, $1 on Monday and 50 cents on Tuesday. Everything is final sale.

Nellis Auction also facilitates sales via its online auction website, where customers can bid and pick up their item at one of their two warehouses.

Follow Emerson Drewes at [email protected]. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.

(Bloomberg) — The World Bank’s top economist called on private lenders to shoulder some of the cost of debt forgiveness for the poorest countries, as record high repayments drain budgets that should be focused on health, education and infrastructure. 

Interest payments alone by the lowest-income nations ballooned to a record $34.6 billion in 2023, quadrupling over the past decade, the bank said in its latest International Debt Report. Including principal, those 78 nations are paying $96.2 billion annually to service $1.1 trillion in debt. 

More alarming, according to Chief Economist Indermit Gill, is that private lenders have pulled almost $13 billion more in service payments from those countries than they injected in new financing…

The World Bank’s top economist called on private lenders to shoulder some of the cost of debt forgiveness for the poorest countries, as record high repayments drain budgets that should be focused on health, education and infrastructure.

Interest payments alone by the lowest-income nations ballooned to a record $34.6 billion in 2023, quadrupling over the past decade, the bank said in its latest International Debt Report. Including principal, those 78 nations are paying $96.2 billion annually to service $1.1 trillion in debt.

This week’s TGIF considers the recent Federal Court of Australia decision in PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc in its Capacity as Foreign Representative of IE CA 3 Holdings Ltd v IE CA Holdings Ltd [2024] FCA 1208, concerning a cross-border insolvency application.