People First’s saviour runs into trouble

Viculus, which is offering to host the backdoor listing of Sent's People First Retirement Living, has had receivers appointed to three of its subsidiaries.
BankWest, which is now owned by the Commonwealth Bank, apparently pulled the trigger on January 21. However, the property developer took until January 30 to draft up a statement on the subject, which only surfaced yesterday.
Korda Mentha is now sorting through the accounts at Viculus Aged Care Services, Viculus Aged Care Properties and McKinnon Retirement.
What sort of impact this will have on the overall operations of Viculus, which counts wealthy barrister Allan Myers QC on its share register, is not quite clear as the company has yet to release its financial statements for the 2008 financial year.
In past years, however, Viculus' auditors have emphasised the fact that liabilities of $12.4 million considerably outstrip the company's assets. Viculus incurred a $5.7 million loss in 2007 and its shares have been suspended from trading since August because it hasn't paid its annual listing fees.
Industry observers have long thought that Viculus' plan to raise $250 million to acquire People First was a tad ambitious. Announcing the deal last July, the company said its adviser Bell Potter was "well advanced" in negotiating an underwriting agreement for an equity raising. But not a thing has been muttered on the topic since.
Sent began focusing his energies on People First after he was sacked from running Primelife Corporation in 2003 amid revelations that he'd funnelled hundreds of thousands of dollars into a mediation business run by Melbourne gangland identity Mick Gatto.
Sent and his personal assistant Sandra Porter sued for wrongful dismissal but lost. However, the court case did give rise to some sensational revelations, including Porter's secret videotaping of Primelife's then directors Ron Walker and Robert Champion De Crespigny.
It's not what you think -- they were in a board meeting at the time.