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Van Heeren's legal marathon keeps on running

The New Zealand Herald11:10pm Wed 24 MayNetworkHelp SupportFormer partner still awaiting payout, despite winning in court.

L to R, Alex van Heeren, Catriona Williams and Stephanie Iremonger. Photo / Norrie Montgomery.

Huka Lodge, one of New Zealand's best known luxury retreats, is at the heart of an acrimonious dispute between 69 year old Alex van Heeren and 74 year old Michael Kidd.

The two businessmen have had a marathon 20 year court battle in New Zealand and South Africa over Huka Lodge and a number of other assets.

The courts have found in favour of Kidd and ordered van Heeren to pay US$25 million ($37 million) plus costs.

Van Heeren claims he cannot pay the US$25 million because most of his assets have been transferred to tax haven based entities over which he has no control.

The story goes back to the mid 1970s, when British born Kidd and Dutch born van Heeren worked for a steel trading company in Johannesburg. In 1975 they set up their own steel trading company and in 1979 they formed Genan Trading in the Netherlands Antilles, a Caribbean tax haven. The formation of the company was effected in the Netherlands, with Kidd and van Heeren holding 50 per cent each.

Genan generated huge cash surpluses from steel trading based on Kidd's trading expertise while van Heeren looked after the company's finances.

In the early 1980s, the two shareholders, who were concerned about the political situation in South Africa, decided to emigrate to New Zealand under our "entrepreneurial scheme". They were both granted residency and purchased homes in Auckland. They also acquired a New Zealand company, Prime International Ltd.

Van Heeren moved to New Zealand in 1981 but Kidd stayed in South Africa because Genan Trading and a number of jointly owned South African companies continued to operate in the African country. Kidd moved back to the United Kingdom in 1987 to replica hermes handbags be closer to his family.

Van Heeren wasted no time in New Zealand. He was captivated by Huka Lodge when he saw it for the first time from the footbridge over the Huka Falls.

The Dutchman was appointed Honorary Consul for The Netherlands in Auckland in 1985, a position he held until 2012.

Van Heeren now gives his home address in Belgium, where he is the Honorary Consul for New Zealand to a number of Belgian provinces.

Meanwhile, back in the 1980s van Heeren purchased a significant shareholding in Wellesley Resources, one of the high flying NZX property companies in the mid 1980s. He sold the stake for $30 million just three months before the 1987 sharemarket crash. The Wellesley investment demonstrated that van Heeren fake hermes leather handbags was an astute investor.

However, the two partners began to have major disagreements in the late 1980s. In 1991 they finalised an agreement how much is a hermes handbag in South Africa to terminate their relationship and divide their business assets. This agreement has been at the centre of their bitter dispute.

Meanwhile, van Heeren continued to expand his New Zealand business network. In 1993 he obtained a 9.1 per cent shareholding in the Fay, Richwhite consortium that purchased New Zealand Rail from the Crown.

New Zealand Rail changed copy hermes bags its name to Tranz Rail and listed on the NZX. In 1998 van Heeren sold his shares for a profit of more than $42 million, just before Tranz Rail's share price crashed.

In February 1996 Kidd filed proceedings in New Zealand challenging aspects of his 1991 agreement with van Heeren.

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