NPT unit holder group pushes for removal of manager

Wednesday 12th May 2010

A group of investors in National Property Trust have called for a meeting to dump the manager, part of the St Laurence group of companies, saying it is out of touch with unit holders, its fees are too high and the trust is under-performing.

“There is widespread dissatisfaction with the management,” said David Cushing, a director of H&G, one of a group of unit-holders who hold more than 10% of the trust.

Perpetual Trust this month sent St Laurence into receivership, ignoring a proposal to debenture holders from the finance company’s managing director Kevin Podmore to swap their debt for equity in a new holding company.The receivership didn’t include St Laurence’s management companies, which hold the contracts to manage National Property and Irongate Property.

The disgruntled National Property unit holders want to put a resolution to remove St Laurence’s National Property Trust and if that fails, direct the trustee to apply to the court to have it ousted. They also propose that the results of the vote be published on the NZX within 24 hours of the meeting.

Under the management of St Laurence, the trust has been “one of the worst-performing property trusts listed on the NZX for a prolonged period of time” while fees paid to the manager and corporate governance “are materially out of line with current market best practice, the unit holders said in a statement today. Net asset value is about 70 cents though the units last traded at 48 cents.

In the past five years, the units have slid almost 50% while the benchmark NZX 50 Index gained about 10% in the same period. Kiwi Income Property Trust declined about 15%.

“The ultimate parent of the manager is St Laurence, which has been placed in receivership by Perpetual Trust,” the statement from Cushing says. “The status of the manager reflects extremely poorly on NPT and taints the entire vehicle.”

Cushing urged other unit holders to support the removal of the manager, saying St Laurence may use its own holding in the trust to block the resolutions.

Businesswire.co.nz

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