Strauss property assets not offered up to pay Sapphire (SA) creditors

THE principal of Sapphire (SA) Pty Ltd owned properties worth $2m just before the company went into administration.

Grain Harvest. Mallee. Wheat.

THE principal of failed grain trader Sapphire (SA) Pty Ltd owned properties worth $2 million just before the company went into administration in March last year.

But the portfolio of residential and commercial properties in Murray Bridge and nearby Karoonda in South Australia was not offered up to pay ­unsecured creditors of Sapphire (SA) nor was it offered later as a guarantee of payments to creditors under the Deed of Company Arrangement.

Instead, Sapphire (SA) owner and manager Brenton Strauss offered another of his companies, Crazy Lace (SA) Pty Ltd, as guarantor of the DoCA.

Crazy Lace (SA)’s only asset is the Nhill Bulk Handling site, which had previously been placed on the market by Mr Strauss but did not sell.

The other five commercial and residential properties are owned by Strauss company Bren Lynn (SA) Pty Ltd and included Mr Strauss’s current residence in Murray Bridge, valued at about $700,000.

There is no suggestion Mr Strauss was legally required to put the five properties up as personal security for Sapphire (SA).

Documents seen by The Weekly Times show Bren Lynn (SA) had a mortgage of nearly $400,000 against the properties.

It is not clear whether Bren Lynn (SA) still owns all the properties.

The documents showed ­another Strauss company, transport business Amethyst (SA) Pty Ltd, had net assets of about $600,000.

When Sapphire (SA) collapsed in March last year, a ­report to creditors by administrator Anthony Matthews and Associates dated April 9 last year, showed Sapphire (SA) wrote off $367,000 as a bad debt from Amethyst (SA) in the financial year ended September 30, 2013, and a further $36,000 in the next six months.

But other documents showed Amethyst (SA) held assets with a book value of about $230,000 at the end of September 2013.

According to the Matthews and Associates report, Sapphire (SA) wrote off $3.1 million as bad debts from related companies in the year to September 30, 2013, and another $228,000 in the following six months.

Nearly $21,000 was a bad debt against another Strauss company, Onyx (SA) Pty Ltd, written off in the six months to March 14, last year.

Onyx (SA) owned grain handling equipment.

Documents showed its ­assets at the end of September 2013 had a book value of $420,000.

Mr Strauss would not ­answer questions from The Weekly Times.