Former Billionaire Pan Sutong’s local wine and horse breeding entities are in administration
Bankrupt former billionaire Pan Sutong, who built an empire in Hong Kong which crashed into insolvency in recent years, has had his local wine and horse interests placed in administration.
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The Australian arm of bankrupt former billionaire Pan Sutong’s empire has collapsed, with a wine company and the entity which formerly owned the famed Lindsay Park Stud falling into administration.
Sutong’s Goldin Group acquired the Lindsay Park Stud - which it sold in early 2023 - in 2013, nearly 50 years after it was founded by legendary trainer Colin Hayes.
The plan was to restore the Angaston, Barossa Valley property and continue its rich heritage of breeding champion racehorses - an ambition which appears to have been realised - with Goldin branching out into wine production in 2020, launching associated winery Tarrawatta.
The winery produced its inaugural shiraz and grenache in 2021 from a 2018 vintage, gaining 95 and 94 point ratings from the Halliday Wine Companion in 2022, however it doesn’t appear to have produced any more wine since the 2019 vintage was released.
Sutong also owned Napa Valley winery Sloan Estate - which still lists him as “vintner” on its website - and three Bordeaux château, including Château Le Bon Pasteur in Pomerol.
The Sloan Estate website does not list any wines currently for sale.
Sutong was listed on the Forbes list of Hong Kong’s 50th Richest as recently as 2021, having amassed a fortune in the billions from his interests in electronics, wine, financial services and real estate.
Forbes recorded his fortune as having dropped from $US8.6bn in 2015 to $US1.8bn in 2021.
In 2022 he was declared bankrupt in a Hong Kong Court, with Sutong’s Australian bankrutpcy trustee winning a judgment from the Federal Court of Australia that recognised the bankruptcy ruling locally.
Sutong’s Goldin Financial Holdings was ordered to be wound up by Hong Kong’s High Court in late 2022, after the businessman reportedly failed to repay $HK8bn ($US1bn at the time) to creditors, with that money borrowed to refinance the privatisation of Goldin Properties Holdings.
An Australian court judgment handed down earlier this year indicates Sutong’s debts could have been greater than $20bn.
“The creditors in the bankruptcy are vast,’’ the judgment says.
“The petitioning creditors alone have lodged proofs of debt totalling over HK$15bn (approximately $3bn).
“Another creditor, Bank of China Limited, has lodged a proof of debt for over HK$96bn (approximately $18b).
“Overall, the proofs of debt that have been lodged substantially exceed these large amounts.’’
The judgment says Sutong was a director of Goldin Australia from July 2013 until August 2022, about a month after the bankruptcy order, when a Kin Ming Wong was made the sole director - and remains so.
“The (bankruptcy) trustees suspect that Kin Ming Wong is an associate of the bankrupt,’’ the judgment says.
The court documents say Goldin Australia owned several parcels of land in the Barossa Valley which were sold in December 2022 for $20.85m.
Financial records of a related trust, the Goldin Australia Equine Trust, which had a loan of $50.8m outstanding in favour of Sutong, subsequently showed that liability had decreased by an amount which broadly correlated to the sale price amount the court documents say.
Administrators were appointed to both Goldin Wines Australia and Goldin Australia - the trustee off the Equine Trust - on December 2, with a creditors’ meeting to be held on December 12.
The administrator, WLP Restructuring, has been contacted for further detail.
The Lindsay Park Stud was sold to the Smart Family’s Smart Group in late 2022, with the family intending to focus on using it for sheep and cattle grazing.
Originally published as Former Billionaire Pan Sutong’s local wine and horse breeding entities are in administration
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