ganke's snappy manoevres

From Sydney Morning Herald today

Fiji land for sale

IT'S been 34 long years, but Boris Ganke is still trying to find a buyer for a slice of tropical heaven.

Ganke, a wily veteran businessman who this week executed some snappy manoeuvres to remain at the helm of Southern Cross Exploration (SXX), controls 17 hectares of beachfront property in Fiji together with business partner Evelyn Goh.

The land is at Nadi Bay, where the only sounds are the gentle lapping of water and the discreet roar of jets taking off and landing at the airport, the main runway of which runs beside the block.

SXX's shareholders would like to call in a $7 million loan to the Fijian company through which Ganke and Goh control the property, Nadi Bay Beach Corporation (NBBC).

But what chance would they have of making a dollar out of the land when Ganke has been trying to flog it off, bit by bit, since 1978?

In November that year NBBC placed an ad (pictured) in Sydney's Sun-Herald, offering ''Beachfront estate villa sites'' on the ''sun-drenched tropical shores of Nadi Bay'', starting from $16,900.

Research by Fairfax Media's library team shows NBBC used the classified columns of The Sydney Morning Herald to make much the same offer twice more the following month and once more in March 1979. The ads give the same Elizabeth Street, Sydney, address as that enjoyed by SXX and another Ganke company, Chapmans.

Chapmans' latest set of accounts, issued in August last year, show it loaned ''less than $150,000 … over 30 years ago'' to NBBC, but the interest owing on the loan has blown out to $512,000 and directors have written off the loan ''as they cannot be fully satisfied of the recoverability at present''.

Surely not. After all, NBBC in its 1979 ads offered ''investment in Fiji which, if you've been there you will know is a sound and increasingly popular idea'' promising ''high investment return potential''.

Ganke told CBD 46 quarter-acre lots had been sold, with the latest fetching $F750,000 (about $A410,000) 18 months ago.

''We've had three or four political coups in Fiji but the market in Fiji is currently particularly buoyant and we're confident we'll make a return in due course,'' he said.

Let's hope so.


Bit by Bit we are getting the facts and the picture of the Ganke and Goh operation !!!!

How can the Mortgage be repaid if there is no land Left ?????

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