The failed property developer Westpoint Group owes investors more than $420 million and with two exceptions, investors in most of its projects will receive little if any return, a report by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has found.
ASIC said that Westpoint raised $421 million from investors through the issue of promissory notes and so-called mezzanine notes, before its collapse in early 2006.
The amount payable to those investors has been estimated at between $74.3 million and $100.6 million.
However most of that money is due to be paid to investors in just two projects, both in Perth.
The Warnbro Fair Syndicate, which owned the Warnbro shopping centre near Rockingham, is owed $10.6 million and is likely to get abck two to three times their initial investment.
The other lucky group was investors in Emu Brewery Mezzanine Ltd, who are likely to get back 99.6 cents in the dollar on their $25.4 million investment.
Putting aside the money to be paid to these two groups, only about $50 million will be available to pay other creditors, who collectively are owed about $385 million.
The amount payable will depend on which project investors put their money into. Investors in several projects, including Cinema City Mexxanine Pty Ltd, are expected to get a nil payout while in several other cases ASIC said the expected return is still unknown.
Estimating the likely payouts has been complicated by the complex structure of Westpoint, which was run by Norm Carey.
ASIC noted that the parent company, Westpoint Corporation Pty Ltd, has unsecured creditors totalling $360 million, but this includes $275 million of guarantees for the debts of the mezzanine companies.
The ASIC report said it is still investigating a wide range of legal matters surrounding the collapse.
