Hanover Finance imposes freeze on investor funds

Investors are unhappy at the revelation that the firm’s owners have collected huge multi-million dollar dividends

New Zealand’s third largest, and probably best known, finance company Hanover Finance, jointly owned by Eric Watson, the richest man in the country, has created further panic among the country’s investors by suddenly revealing it, and subsidiary United Finance, are in financial trouble. The group froze more than NZ$500mn of creditors’ funds. Mr Watson’s fortune is estimated at NZ$450mn.