Thanks for the continued support Gardie.
I just read the following article re Jim Raptis. The Wellington Capital Premium Income Fund had loans in the vicinity of between $50-55million to the Raptis Group.The PIF lost $20 million of that with the sale of the Sheraton Mirage being a second mortgagee. I don't know if we ever got anthing else back.
Millions lost in Sands of time
Quentin Tod | 08:06am April 30, 2012
IT seems Gold Coast developer Jim Raptis was going for the doctor, chasing the ultimate prescription, seven years ago when he initiated a move to buy apartments in The Sands building overlooking the beach in Surfers Paradise.
The prescription was full control of the 98-unit building, a path that billionaire, the late Kerry Packer, apparently tried unsuccessfully to tread in the early '80s.
The Raptis Group boss, in chasing what would be a brilliant development site, was too ambitious, a trait that has cost the company and its shareholders dearly over the years.
The upshot is that receivers have been working their way though a list of 40 apartments in The Sands assembled by the Raptis camp at a cost of more than $17 million between 2003 and 2007.
The receivers have netted $5.7 million for 32 of the apartments in what is a far from pretty sell-off picture. For example, an apartment bought from one Victorian family for $1.232 million in the Raptis exercise has just re-sold for $181,000.
The Raptis largesse at The Sands saw the same family receive $3.082 million for another apartment, one of those still to be sold by receivers.
The buying was, of course, good news for many owners in The Sands, not the least TV doctor James Wright (real name Dr John Knight). He had for years been buying cheap Surfers apartments in which to offer struggling oldies low-cost accommodation.
His Medi-Aid Centre Foundation, which had spent $541,000 on four apartments in The Sands, walked away with $1.276 million four years later.
It seems Gentleman Jim, once described by former lieutenant the late Peter Lacey, as a fearless borrower, found some lenders with no fear when it came to The Sands.
Certainly Investec, the first mortgagee on the bulk of the Raptis holding in The Sands, and second mortgagee CVC Private Equity, must rue the day they backed the attempted amalgamation of the building.
Many millions of dollars have been lost and the head of the Raptis Group, which has twice been at death's door in the wake of adventurous borrowing, has again been embarrassed.
That said, it takes two to tango, or in this case three, and in The Sands fiasco the lenders too have tripped badly on the beachfront dancefloor
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2012/04/30/411635_gold-coast-business.html
OCV
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