South Canterbury Finance final rites

South Canterbury Finance, which received a $1.78 billion government bailout, but still collapsed is due to get its final rites.

PwC’s John Fisk and David Bridgman lodged their final liquidators’ report on FCS Loans – the renamed shell of the company, once-proud South Island lender – and they intend on removing South Canterbury and Hubbard’s Southbury and Hornchurch entities from the Companies Register.

If this goes ahead as planned on November 13, it will bring to a close the 94-year history of the entity that ended in ignominy when South Canterbury had to call on the government for a $1.78 billion bail out for depositors and other creditors in August 2010.

Like other finance companies, it ultimately buckled under the weight of its imprudent rapid expansion through the mid-2000s until the global financial crisis hit and sapped the sector’s ability to find new funds.