Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1960-1961 — Page 31

company which operated a number of schools with over 10,000 pupils and possessed very substantial assets. The petition, which was by some shareholders, was opposed by other shareholders, and throughout the year the Official Receiver acted as Provisional Liquidator, while a Special Manager dealt with the day to day business (as distinct from the educational running) of the schools.

88. Of the new bankruptcies, one was of a garment factory with over 500 employees, and another related to a school with some 1,100 pupils. In the latter case the Official Receiver succeeded in making arrangements for the transfer of the school to a new proprietor without disruption of the children's education.

89. One of the new winding-up cases, namely that of Peony House West Block Ltd, involved the Official Receiver's office in an enormous amount of work. This company had contracted to purchase a piece of land at Mong Kok upon which it intended to erect a block of low cost flats with shops on the ground floor. It accordingly entered into agreements for sale and purchase with 299 purchasers mainly of the lower income groups. With the deposits made under these agreements, the land was purchased, and work on the building begun; but for various reasons the company got into financial difficulties and at the date of the Winding-up Order only the skeleton of the building had been completed. By this time there were three mortgages on the property ranking ahead of the purchasers' agreements. Since it was clearly in the best interests of the purchasers to complete the building, a scheme of arrangement was, after a great deal of work and prolonged negotiations, agreed by 259 purchasers and the general creditors and approved by the Court. Under this, each of the purchasers agreeing to the scheme undertook to pay the balance due on his purchase agreement and also to contribute an additional 30% of the original price in order to provide the money required to complete the building. Temporary finance was arranged and a Special Manager appointed, and at the end of the year the building was nearly completed and there seemed every prospect that the scheme would be successfully carried out.

Dividends Paid

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90. Nine dividends were declared and distributed, seven in four bankruptcies, and two in a winding-up. The bankruptcy dividends included four dividends totalling 91%, and amounting in all to over $725,000, under a composition of which the Official Receiver was

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