John Chow, left, and Michael Chow.
Millionaire property magnates the Chow brothers have been forced to buy a fire services company to protect a bank loan they bought earlier this year.
Michael and John Chow, with their business partner Clint Webber, made a quick decision to buy AFS Total Fire Protection after the Inland Revenue Department threatened to put the company into liquidation on Friday.
AFS Total Fire Protection designs, builds and installs fire protection systems to making sure building complies with fire regulations.
123RFAFS Total Fire Protection went into receivership earlier this week.
In a statement, the Chow’s company Inno Capital said it bought AFS’ bank debt and was working to buy the company.
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But when Inland Revenue advised it would seek to liquidate the company, Inno Capital appointed receivers to protect its loan.
The Chows and Webber confirmed they had reached agreement with receivers Damien Grant and Steven Khov from Waterstone Insolvency to buy the assets of the business.
Webber said it was important to act with urgency for AFS’s clients.
“If we’d let the company go into liquidation a lot of businesses would have been left with an uncertain fire protection and monitoring service over the summer holiday period.
“I can assure all AFS clients right now that the business will continue without interruption,” Webber said.
AFS has offices in Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga and Christchurch . Clients include AMP, Auckland Transport and DHL.buy
John Chow said the quick decision to buy the company before Christmas was ” influenced strongly” by wanting to give more than 50 staff some certainty during the holiday break.
However, John Chow said the jobs could not be guaranteed until the company’s books were fully reviewed.
“Our end goal is to bring AFS back as a major player in the fire protection services industry,” he said.
– Stuff