7 Apr 2005

Ailing Niue firm hopes government will rebuild hotel

10:13 am on 7 April 2005

One of the directors of a struggling Niuean company says it's hoping the Niue government may agree to rebuild a hotel on which the firm based its business.

Niue Investment Limited suffered a major blow when Cyclone Heta destroyed Niue Hotel, which the firm leased from the government, in January last year.

Since then the firm's faced court action and had itself struck off the Companies' Register in New Zealand.

The acting chairman of directors, the Niue Assembly Speaker Atapana Sakiamotu, says records lost during Heta and an inability to provide audited accounts were behind the striking-off.

He says he hopes the firm can trade its way out of its difficulties, but this depends on the building of a new hotel or guesthouse.

"The company's hoping that the government will rebuild a replacement, because the need for accommodation here in Niue in so as far as the visitor industry is concerned is very great, and the company is hoping if the government builds a replacement hotel to meet the accommodation requirements, we may be able to go back to government again and ask for a continuation of the association that we've had before."