‘I trusted him all those years’: Luxury car dealer disappears amid abrupt business closure
A luxury car dealership in New Zealand has entered receivership, leaving investors and high-profile figures blindsided. The owner, Simon O'Reilly, has reportedly disappeared, with rumors suggesting he has fled to Europe.
Why it matters
The sudden collapse of the business highlights the risks in private lending and the impact of financial mismanagement on high-net-worth individuals and local economies.
Property developer Steve Goodey's former Ferrari. Photo / RNZ
The end of a luxury car dealership in Petone has blindsided financiers and Wellington elites, including philanthropist Sir Mark Dunajtschik, who says he considered the business owner to have been like a son.
The man behind the children’s hospital told RNZ he hadn’t given up on Simon O’Reilly, who he said owed him a “substantial amount” of money, and was now rumoured to be in Europe.
Car dealership O’Reilly’s Garage was on Wednesday placed into receivership, with Avanti Finance appointing receivers BDO.
Dunajtschik told RNZ earlier this week he loaned O’Reilly the capital to start the dealership in 2018 and “was surprised like everybody else”.
O’Reilly had always kept up with the interest on the loan, Dunajtschik told RNZ, however, he’d subsequently taken what steps he could to protect himself financially.
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