May Wang acting as front for Chinese dairy investors

15-03-2010 | Richard Rennie

The Chinese business woman fronting a large scale investment in New Zealand dairy farms has defended her chequered business history here.

May Wang has two liquidated businesses and owes hundreds of thousands to creditors and business partners through a failed property and hotel company, Dynasty Group.

She left New Zealand in October 2008, the day after Dynasty Group was liquidated, but returned last year to lead Chinese-backed efforts to buy a large number of dairy farms from the CraFarms group, now in receivership, and more recently, two dairy units owned by NuGen Farms, now in receivership but formerly owned by Allan Crafar's son Robert.

Wang is the NZ face of UBNZ Assets Holdings, the company that has bought at least four Crafar dairy properties here, despite still requiring Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval.

"We went through a very difficult time with Dynasty Group, and my business partner walked away from the business. I became responsible for dealing with all creditors and payments," she told the The NZ Farmers Weekly from Singapore.

Wang claimed to be continuing to repay creditors from her own funds.

The OIO has stated Wang's business history suggests she could struggle to personally fund the land purchases which are estimated to amount to $25 million. However, Wang claims her New Zealand citizenship means she is just as entitled to buy property as anyone else in this country.

Her company UBNZ Trustee Ltd was the first registered buyer of the NuGen Farms (Robert Crafar) properties bought last month. However, titles were immediately transferred to UBNZ Assets Holdings, of which she owns 80%.

The remaining 20% of UBNZ Assets is owned by NZ Natural Dairy Ltd. It is in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-held Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings, in Hong Kong.

This prompted a "please explain" from the OIO.

"We were acting on the advice we had at the time that told us if we carried out the original contract we did not break the law," Wang claimed.

She said her company's solicitors were working now to file an application for retrospective consent from the OIO.

The colourful business background of Jack Chen, listed as a director of NZ Natural Dairy, also raises questions.

Chen was reportedly prevented from running any company in mainland China for three years in 2004 due to breaches in securities law. Company records here register him as residing in Howick, Auckland. Complaints were also filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange as late as last year about Chen's involvement in Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings.

Wang claimed the OIO would be hard pressed to turn down the application to buy the land, claiming no individuals were involved that should not be in the businesses. However, she refused to comment on Chen's past.

Wang and others were reported flying around Bay of Plenty and Waikato as late as last week in a chartered helicopter looking at properties for potential purchase.

She claimed the next stage of investment will include an ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk plant to process and export product back to Asia.

Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings has already claimed in Chinese press it had a deal with UBNZ, a company it described as a "New Zealand milk processing company", back in November. This is despite UBNZ having no plant or farms under its full ownership at this point.

Wang said the higher-than-current market prices paid for the properties bought so far were justified on the grounds they were based on prices agreed with the vendors in late 2008 when the market peaked.

However The NZ Farmers Weekly understands similar high prices have been touted on more recent propositions in Western Southland and Wang confirmed the company was considering land there.

She said wealthy individuals were underwriting the bid to buy land in NZ, with $100 million deposited in a NZ bank account on Christmas Eve.

Funders include a Chen Fashu, one of China's 25 richest men with a net recorded wealth of US$1.5 billion. Chen's empire includes a 7% stake in the massive Tsingtao brewery. He purchased $NZ25 million of shares in Natural Dairy (NZ) on December 22 last year.

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