Long-established air freight company Airwork Group owes its secured creditors $145 million, according to the first receivers’ report lodged at the Companies Office.
The company failed in early July, with Calibre Partners appointed as receivers.
The primary source of Airwork’s woes was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It racked up hundreds of millions of dollars of losses after five Boeing 757 freighter aircraft were trapped and seized in Russia.
That forced the company to write off its value, and it became trapped in ongoing litigation with its insurers.
The receivers also blamed challenging trading conditions, the loss of customers and unsustainable debt levels.
Airwork – one of New Zealand’s oldest aviation companies and tracing its roots back to 1936 – has a fleet of Boeing 737 freighters and operates an air freight, maintenance, and aircraft leasing business.
The company was briefly listed on the stock exchange in 2013 before a Chinese company, Zhejiang Rifa Holdings, took it private in 2017.
The company sold its helicopter operations in 2022 and sold several surplus aircraft and engines to try and stay afloat.
More recently, Airwork defaulted on a US$83.5 million (NZ$140m) bank loan and was pushed into receivership by the Bank of New Zealand, which appears to be its largest creditor.
The company continues to trade while in receivership, flying air freight across New Zealand and Australia.
Separately, the receivers are also trying to sell the assets of the company that are not used as part of its air-freight business.
Calibre Partners did not reveal the value of Airwork’s assets in the first receivers’ report, citing commercial sensitivity as it tries to sell the company.
rnz.co.nz