Parent Firm to Go On With Plan for Dana Point
A U.S. executive with Qintex Australia Ltd. said Friday that the company’s plan to build a luxurious resort in Dana Point is still on track, despite the bankruptcy of a subsidiary.
The subsidiary, Qintex Entertainment, filed for protection from creditors this week after missing a $5.9-million payment to MCA Inc. that it owed under a film distribution agreement.
The bankruptcy was one more sign of trouble at Qintex Australia Ltd., the parent company, which owns 43% of Qintex Entertainment’s stock.
Just last week, Qintex Australia Ltd. saw its $1.5-billion purchase of the MGM/UA film studios fall through when Qintex was unable to scrape together what was essentially a $50-million down payment.
“The companies are completely separate entities,” said the executive, who asked not to be identified. “As of today, there’s no indication there’ll be any impact at all on the resort.” But local officials worried Friday that Qintex might back out of the resort project.
“We’re anxiously waiting to hear something definite on this,” said Dana Point Mayor Eileen Krause. The resort hotel could bring a big increase in tax revenue to the small, newly incorporated city.
At least one local company wasn’t worried, however. Stein-Brief Group said its deal to sell Qintex 232 acres in Dana Point for the resort has already been closed. Sources said most of the $132-million price of the land had already been paid in cash to Stein-Brief and its partner, Hawaiian hotel developer Hemmeter Corp.
Not yet closed, sources said, is the sale of a further 115 acres in Dana Point, owned by Chandler-Sherman Corp., to Qintex for $115 million. Chandler-Sherman said it does not talk to the media and refused to comment on the deal.
An Australian stock analyst, Bryan Madden of Prudential-Bache in Melbourne, said Qintex had made only a deposit on the Chandler-Sherman property and was deferring payment of most of the $115 million until 1991.
Staff writers Bill Billiter and Jonathan Weber contributed to this story.
