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Judge allows Kauai's Ceatech
to sell its assets
The Honolulu
Star-Bulletin's
Stewart Yerton reports that Ceatech has been
given permission to sell its assets to Sunrise
Capital LLC of Honolulu
Shrimp
farm on Kauai gets
reprieve from court
The operation's owner gets permission to
sell its assets to an Oahu firm
By Stewart
Yerton
A
financially troubled shrimp farm on Kauai
was given a second chance yesterday when
a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that
the farm's bankrupt owner, Ceatech USA
Inc.,
could sell its assets to an outside investor.
U.S.
Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris' ruling
allows Ceatech to sell the farm to Sunrise
Capital LLC of Honolulu. Ceatech operates
the farm on land leased from the state
in the Kekaha Agriculture
Park.
Since Ceatech filed for bankruptcy
protection from creditors in March, the
company has limped along with a small
crew doing
little more than hatching shrimp.But
recently Ceatech has warned that its cash
is running
out, and that it risks losing
its leases with the state, which are
perhaps the company's most valuable assets.
Sunrise
had offered to buy the farm, including
the leases, for $389,000. But Faris determined
that the price did not account for lease
payments that the farm
owed the state and Kauai County. After
Sunrise agreed to pay an additional $37,000
to cover those costs, or $426,000
total, Faris approved the sale.
Stephen
Gelber, an attorney for Sunrise, said
it
appears his client will continue
to grow shrimp at the facility. However,
Gelber declined to comment further, referring
questions to Kelvin Taketa, Sunrise's
director.
Taketa
was not available for comment late yesterday.
Taketa,
who is also chief executive of the Hawaii
Community Foundation, has said that
Sunrise is not related to the foundation,
which manages $265 million in assets.
A Louisiana-based maker of shrimp chow,
Burris Mill & Feed Inc., had objected
to the sale, asserting that Sunrise's
bid was too low and questioning whether
Ceatech
had done enough to market its assets
before striking a deal with Sunrise.
But
Faris
brushed aside the objection, pointing
to an appraisal by Ceatech, which showed
the firm's liquidation value to be $389,000.
In
any case, lawyers for Burris Mill did
not
attend yesterday's hearing. The next
step for the farm will be to obtain an
infusion of cash from Sunrise. The money
can be
used to pay looming lease fees and employees
who are hatching shrimp,
said Jerrold Guben, an attorney for Ceatech.
Ceatech
USA Inc.
Honolulu
Star-Bulletin
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