A Cessna 402 owned by New Zealand Aerial Mapping.

NZ Aerial Mapping, which was founded in Hastings in 1936, was put into receivership in July after running out of cash, with NZ$1.5 million in outstanding payments owed on contracts in Saudi Arabia.

John Fisk and Colin McCloy of PricewaterhouseCoopers were appointed joint receivers of NZ Aerial Mapping on 2 July 2014 under the terms of a security agreement dated the 12 day of May 2005.

John Fisk told The Dominion Post that hopes of finding a buyer had been dashed and staff have been advised that trading would cease once existing work had been completed. 15 of its 22 staff have been made redundant, with the remaining  seven being kept on to complete existing work and assist with the sale.

The company’s assets, including five aircraft and several properties, will be offered for sale on a breakup basis.

Fisk said that the company’s financial position “had deteriorated over the last three years as a result of trading losses and [it] was unable to raise capital to meet its funding requirements.”

In 2010, NZAM was contracted by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to accurately mark out and map their shared border. However, the company was unable to collect payment on the job, and its financial position then worsened.

Fisk would not say who or which companies failed to pay: “Given we are still working through a process to see if we can recover amounts due under the contracts, we are unable to provide further details at this stage.”

NZ Aerial Mapping’s aircraft worked throughout New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, the Middle East and Europe. It holds a library of more than a million New Zealand images, dating from 1936.