REGINA —Claims against Sunterra Group have now been filed as the Alberta-based companies continue operating under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench has also approved a stay extension, which prevents creditors from taking legal action while a company restructures, until Dec. 5.
The claims process determines the amount and validity of claims and works to resolve them efficiently so restructuring can occur. They had to be filed by Sept. 7.
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The Sunterra Group was granted CCAA protection on April 28, 2025, about a month after filing notice of intention to declare bankruptcy. Sunterra operates a number of agricultural and food businesses, including hog operations, a greenhouse and retail food markets.
Simultaneously, three of its hog subsidiaries operating in the United States ran into legal difficulty after a lender alleged a massive cheque kiting scheme, in which the companies wrote cheques back and forth between the lender, Compeer Financial and the National Bank of Canada.
Those assets were placed under the authority of a receiver and a U.S. court has since approved their sale to The Pork Group, or Tyson Foods, for $15 million.
However, Compeer said it is out more than twice that amount because of Sunterra’s actions. It filed a claim against Sunterra and two individuals in Canada in June, claiming more than $36.5 million.
The two parties have agreed on a procedure for that proceeding to take place over the next month, with all briefs filed by early October.
Sunterra and National Bank are discussing a similar process.
In July, the monitor, FTI Consulting, said “Sunterra Group has been working diligently to stabilize its cash flow, restructure its operations and preserve the value of its estate.”
The monitor said Sunterra has met with numerous stakeholders and been proactive in anticipating and resolving concerns. It said the companies had the cash flow to operate under the extended stay.
Meanwhile, Sunterra sold two quarters of land as part of the process.
“The nature of the lands are marginal agricultural and isolated. They were purposely chosen in this type of isolated location to house the high health status hog farms. The market therefore is limited to nearby farmers that would add the land to operations in the area that they already have,” court documents said.
Only one interested party came forward when the land was listed: Douglas Price, a member of the Price family that owns Sunterra, and Evan Hegedys, his son-in-law. Since both are related to Sunterra Group, the court had to approve the $300,000 transaction.
