ANZO pinches another Goodman executive in lead-up to restructure

Tuesday 5th October 2010

AMP NZ Office Trust has pinched another Goodman Property Trust executive as it prepares for its new life as a company.

ANZO, which poached Goodman's fund manager Scott Pritchard last month to head up the new operation, has appointed George Crawford to oversee it finances. Crawford was previously chief financial officer at Goodman Property Trust.

"Mr Crawford has extensive experience in corporate finance and financial management and has a wide range of hands-on experience in capital management, investor relations, financial management and reporting specific to the listed property sector," said Craig Stobo, chairman of ANZO's manager.

The two wins will help take the sting out of last week's independent adviser's report in AMP NZ Office Trust's corporatisation plan, which said the change was an improvement, but fees were still significantly higher than competitors.

The KordaMentha report cited Goodman's base fee, which is 20% below ANZO's proposed base, as the market leading model, though it said the rival clawed back lower base fees through higher add-ons.

ANZO can claim bragging rights in performance on the stock exchange this year, gaining 2.6% this year compared to Goodman's 9.3% decline, in what's been a tough 12 months for commercial property investors.

AMP NZ Office Trust's shares were unchanged at 79 cents today, while Goodman's stock fell 1% to 97 cents.

Goodman has the bigger portfolio of the two investors, worth some $1.5 billion, according to an update last month. As at June 30, ANZO's portfolio was worth $1.28 billion.

Goodman is replacing its two lost executives with Murray Barclay, who steps in for Pritchard after spending several years in Europe, and Michael Strudwick, who comes from an investment banking background.

Businesswire.co.nz

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