ASIC moves on Aviation 3030's Point Cook rezoned property play

ASIC has applied to the Federal Court of Australia for the appointment of provisional liquidators to Aviation 3030 Pty Ltd (Aviation) related to that company’s operation of a property investment scheme involving 98 hectares of land at Point Cook, Victoria.

ASIC’s application has been listed for hearing in the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne on 27 September 2018.

ASIC is seeking:

• the appointment of George Georges and John Lindholm of Ferrier Hodgson as provisional liquidators of Aviation; and
• orders requiring the provisional liquidators to provide a report to the court which sets out, among other things, the identity of Aviation investors (which includes shareholders and unitholders), the financial position of Aviation, and an opinion as to the validity of the issue of 63% of shares in Aviation to a director and former director.

The grounds of ASIC’s application include that:

• there is a justifiable lack of confidence in Aviation’s management;
• Aviation issued shares without a prospectus when one was required; and
• the Aviation scheme is an unregistered managed investment scheme which was required to be registered with ASIC.

Once the provisional liquidators’ report has been provided to the Court, ASIC will consider whether it should seek orders from the Court for the winding up of Aviation and the managed investment scheme it operates through five separate trusts (the Aviation scheme). ASIC will also consider whether to seek orders to wind up all of the trustee companies involved in the Aviation scheme, each of which are controlled by Aviation directors, as follows:

1.      Aviation3030 Investment Pty Ltd

2.      Aviation3030 Holdings Pty Ltd

3.      Aviation 3030 Heng Ly Pty Ltd

4.      Point Cook Aviation3030 Pty Ltd

5.      Aviation 3030 HL Pty Ltd.

Aviation purchased property at Point Cook for $7.8 million in 2011 with a view to rezoning the property to increase the value of 756 Aviation Road. To facilitate the purchase and rezoning of the property, Aviation raised around $10.59 million from approximately 73 shareholders and unitholders. On 13 September 2012 the Aviation property was rezoned from Green Wedge Zone to Farming and appears to have significantly increased in value.

On 6 July 2018 Aviation entered into a contract for the sale of the land at Point Cook. This contract was formally terminated on 17 August 2018 and ASIC is not aware of there being any current sale contract.

ASIC has previously, in 2016, issued court proceedings against Aviation to limit the ability of Aviation to deal with the proceeds of the sale of the Aviation property, pending further disclosures being made to investors about a share issue in 2016 to companies owned by a director and former director, and an opportunity to obtain independent advice concerning their investments.

By agreement with ASIC, Aviation provided corrective disclosure to investors in September 2016 about the 2016 share issue to companies owned by a director and former director. The freezing order was vacated when it became apparent that the sale would not then proceed.