6 Apr 2005

Niue investor seeks answers over Niue Investment Limited

3:43 pm on 6 April 2005

One of the bigger shareholders in Niue Investment Limited says he wants answers from the firm over whether it's been struck off the New Zealand Companies Register.

Niue Investment, formed by the Niue Finance Minister, Toke Talagi, is reliably understood to have been struck off the register in December last year.

The firm was set up to take over operation of the government-owned Niue Hotel, which was subsequently destroyed by Cyclone Heta, in January last year.

Niue News says the hotel's destruction lead to a shareholder row over unpaid debts.

David Cottingham, the Niue Development Bank general manager, has 5,000 dollars invested; 40 others have a total of about 56,000 dollars invested.

Mr Cottingham says directors, who include Mr Talagi and the Niue Assembly Speaker, Atapani Siakimotu, should have told shareholders before the firm was struck off.

"I knew they had problems with their financial systems and I thought maybe they were having difficulty getting their accounts into shape. And I suppose it's not altogether a surprise, but I hadn't spoken to the directors in quite some time and I'd kind of hoped they'd got something together in the interim."

David Cottingham says he wrote to Mr Siakimotu late last week and hopes to hear soon.