John Hewson’s Elderslie Finance in receivership

The troubled $200 million Elderslie Finance is in receivership after trustee company Perpetual obtained an order from the Federal Court this morning that it could enforce their security. Perpetual announced this afternoon that it had appointed Gregory Hal

The troubled $200 million Elderslie Finance is in receivership after trustee company Perpetual obtained an order from the Federal Court this morning that it could enforce their security. Perpetual announced this afternoon that it had appointed Gregory Hall and Philip Carter of PricewaterhouseCoopers as receivers to Elderslie Finance Corporation.

An announcement from Elderslie also says that accountants PPB have appointed ABL Nominees to Elderslie Finance and Australian Integrated Finance.

The order will come as a blow to former chairman of Elderslie, John Hewson, who according to reports was working on a last ditch rescue package for the troubled group that would involve an immediate equity injection.

Hewson resigned as chairman on 3 June, two days before Perpetual launched action against Elderslie. Yesterday Elderslie requested a further week’s adjournment to organise a separate bid to inject $15 million into the company – of which $12.6 million would be used to pay creditors other than the debenture holders. The request was rejected.

Another rescue package from former realestate.com.au chief executive Nigel Purves fell through yesterday after he requested more time to do due diligence.

In May Perpetual appointed investigative accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers, who found that Elderslie “was or would become insolvent unless the company was sold and received a significant cash injection to meet its short term liquidity requirements”.

Chris Green, Perpetual’s general manager trust and fund services, said Perpetual’s primary objective was to act in the best interests of the debenture holders.

“We explored a series of options with (Elderslie) before making the decision to appoint a receiver,” he said. “Unfortunately, a sale involving a significant cash injection did not eventuate and we ultimately had no option but to take enforcement action to protect the assets available to debenture holders against any further erosion.”

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