After almost 14 years the Masterbond curatorship was concluded by an order of the Cape High Court on Monday.
The three Masterbond curators said in a statement their appointment had been cancelled by the court order, subject to certain conditions.
These included the final distribution of about R15-million to about 9 500 Masterbond investors and the deregistration of the last five Masterbond companies under curatorship.
Those who would benefit from the final distribution were direct investors in Fancourt Holdings, MC de Jongh, Hyde Park Heights and Marina Martinique, as well as unallocated investors.
This distribution was made in such a way that the direct investors would all finally recover their original investment of 50 cents in the rand less a 7,5% administration fee.
The curators were Jeff Malherbe of Jan S de Villiers, Willem Wilken, formerly of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and David Nurek of Investec.
The curators had to a large extent concluded their task in 2001.
The only delaying factor was the Marina Martinique development near Jeffreys Bay where demand for plots was very low given that the company had been placed in liquidation and buyers were hesitant to commit themselves.
However, once the project had been refinanced demand surged and the whole development had since been sold out.
The latest distribution brings the total the curators have recovered for investors — capital and interest — to about R400-million.
In addition, a debt of R128-million in the Club Mykonos development on the West Coast was restructured in 1993 in terms of a scheme of arrangement whereby investors received shares and debentures in the development in exchange for what they had invested.
Jeff Malherbe, one of the curators, said the scheme or project in which Masterbond had invested their money, had determined what investors recovered.
”Certain investors, such as those in Silverhurst in Constantia or Phinda in KwaZulu-Natal, have had all their money returned to them, together with some interest.
”However, others whose money Masterbond invested in schemes such as Marina Martinique have been far less fortunate.”
Masterbond originally invested a total of R595-million on behalf of more than 22 000 investors in a large number of projects. Of this amount, about R89-million ended up in property syndications, the management of which was taken over by the shareholders in 1992.
Masterbond collapsed in 1991. – Sapa