Panic among ANFI owners as Hermanos Santana Cazorla goes into liquidation. What does it mean?

Liquidation

Hermanos Santana Cazorla SL (HSC), a major construction business in the Canary Islands has gone into liquidation this week.

This has set alarm bells ringing with some timeshare observers, as Santana Cazorla is a 50% shareholder in ANFI.

It should be pointed out that the actual Cazorla entity which holds the ANFI shares is Grupo Santana Cazorla SL (GSC).  GSC does own 10% of HSC, but HSC itself has no relationship with ANFI, although it has held administrative titles with the timeshare company in the past. 

Difficulties

Despite this apparent insulation from the financial turbulence of HSC, ANFI has been having a difficult time  for the last few years.  Once the most successful single site timeshare operation in the world with a turnover of around €120 million a year, ANFI has suffered along with the rest of the industry as many consumers now consider timeshare to be an outdated and expensive way to holiday.  

The resort now operates with a skeleton sales staff, a fraction the size of the giant teams it employed over a decade ago.

In addition to the general market downturn, ANFI (like many other major developers) chose to ignore legislation enacted in 1999 to protect consumers from high pressure sales.  This left the timeshare giant vulnerable to legal action and one law firm alone has racked up over 600 legal victories against ANFI, with over €48 million in judgements awarded.

Embargos and criminal accusations

The Spanish claims company CLA reports that they have achieved embargos against the ANFI golf course, the maintenance fees and even a €600,000 tax rebate that the company is due.

CLA further claimed in the El Diario newspaper that ANFI have been criminally diverting assets to avoid paying their victims the judgement money they were awarded.  ANFI have stopped invoicing their annual maintenance from the usual company, ANFI Resorts. Instead they are invoicing  from other companies in the group such as ANFI Tauro, or ANFI Real Estates which are not listed in the civil proceedings.  CLA say that this is an attempt by ANFI to avoid meeting their financial obligations

Does this affect compensation claimants?

"HSC's liquidation shouldn't affect ANFI," says the Timeshare Consumer Association's Daniel Keating.  "Most owners understand this once we explain it to them, but at the same time there is a general 'no smoke without fire' feeling about HSC's liquidation.  People calling our helpline have seen timeshare mainstay companies dropping off or downsizing recently.  Azure have gone into liquidation, as have Silverpoint. Diamond stopped selling in Europe, Club La Costa have not only stopped selling, but several of their companies have gone into liquidation too.

"When seen in this context, you can't blame timeshare owners for being worried by bad news in the perceived orbit of their club.

"This is a subject we at the TCA will continue to monitor, but for the moment we consider ANFI owners to be safe, and people in the process of claims against the group can relax too.  

"In the event that someone is considering making a compensation claim against ANFI and has concerns about the group's future, the best thing they can do is get their claim started as early as possible.  That way they are ahead of other creditors in case the company was to go into liquidation.

"For free, impartial advice on this, or any other timeshare related issue, get in touch with us on the contact details below"