14/03/2005 19:00 - (SA)

Cape Town - After almost 14 years, the Masterbond curatorship has been concluded by an order issued by the Cape High Court on Monday.

The decision has now closed the book on the sensational collapse of Masterbond in 1991.

With their task now concluded, the three curators - Jeff Malherbe of Jan S de Villiers, Willem Wilken, formerly of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and David Nurek of Investec - have had their appointment cancelled by the court order, subject to certain conditions.

These include the final distribution of about R15m to about 9 500 Masterbond investors and the de-registration of the last five Masterbond companies under curatorship.

Those who will benefit from the final distribution are direct investors in Fancourt Holdings, MC de Jongh, Hyde Park Heights and Marina Martinique, as well as unallocated investors.

The distribution will be made in such a way that the direct investors will all finally recover their original investment 50c in the rand less a 7.5% administration fee.

Curatorship had been successful

In an earlier submission to the court, J van Rooyen, executive officer of the Financial Services Board, said: "From the point of investor funds salvaged and recovered, the curatorship had been remarkably successful.

"A 'no hope' situation - through the dedication, perseverance and legal and business acumen of the curators - has been converted to substantial pay-outs or successful restructuring arrangements for the investors."

The curators had concluded their task in 2001 to a large extent.

The only delaying factor was the Marina Martinique development near Jeffreys Bay, where demand for plots was 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 R400m.

In addition, a debt of R128m in the Club Mykonos development on the West Coast was restructured already 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.

Some have got all of their money back

Jeff Malherbe, one of the curators, said the scheme or project in which Masterbond had invested their monies 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 R595m on behalf of more than 22 000 investors in a large number of projects.

Of this amount, about R89m ended up in property syndications, the management of which was taken over by the shareholders in 1992.