MELBOURNE: AUSTRALIA – Mayfair 101 noteholders have demanded Mayfair 101 be put back in control of its Mission Beach real estate assets after receivers were appointed without noteholder authority in 2020.
Eighty-two percent of noteholders who subscribed for Mayfair’s M Core Fixed Income product have given formal written instructions to the trustee to remove receivers appointed by the trustee. The receivers were appointed in 2020 despite no noteholders instructing them to do so, a matter of days after the Federal Court issued interim injunctions against the group’s Managing Director, James Mawhinney.
The trusts, which are currently in receivership, previously held 130 properties including around 100 deposits on properties in the Mission Beach region of Far North Queensland, and the 145ha freehold land on adjacent Dunk Island.
The property trusts were part of Mayfair’s plans to rebuild the Cassowary Coast region into a ‘tourism mecca’ after the investment group bought the real estate portfolio at the bottom of the market in 2019. The project was set to create 10,000 jobs for Far North Queensland and deliver $1.7 billion of GDP growth to the region[1] until it was de-railed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2020.
M Core Noteholder Bruce Golightly says ASIC's actions against Mayfair 101
do not serve the public interest and instead have caused harm to innocent people
Cairns-based noteholder Bruce Golightly said:
“The leadership at ASIC need to accept they got their campaign against Mayfair 101 wrong. These votes show that the people whose money is at stake want Mayfair back in control of the assets, the insolvency practitioners removed, and for Mayfair to be allowed to get back on with their business. No one was harmed until ASIC came along. Their actions have not served the public interest. This is the stark reality of the situation which deserves the scrutiny of Australian Parliament.”
Mr Mawhinney said the noteholder vote was a show of confidence in Mayfair 101’s ability to protect their interests.
“The trustee’s decision to hastily appoint receivers without a single lender directing them to do so is an act which we will contest in court if necessary, to protect the interests of our lenders. These noteholder votes are testament to just how wrong this whole situation is.”
[1] In September 2019 Mayfair 101 commissioned AEC to undertake an Economic Impact Assessment. The report identified that $1.7 billion in Gross Regional Product would be created including 10,526 Full Time Jobs as a result of Mayfair 101’s investment in the region.
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