High
Court orders have smoothed the way for Perpetual Mortgage Fund to be wound
up. The fund is illiquid. It cannot honour the 437 redemption requests outstanding
as at 11 September 2012 seeking payment of $18.3 million due to investors.
Investors learned in
July 2012 that Perpetual was not able to honour Mortgage Fund redemption
requests. A court-ordered moratorium was
imposed and two independent observers, Ms Fatupaito and Mr Duffy, were appointed
to oversee Fund management. This followed
regulatory concerns about loans totalling $28.2 million made to business
interests related to Perpetual. The
loans have since been repaid but investor nervousness about the probity of
Perpetual management caused a run on its investment funds.
The Securities Act
allows investment funds to be brought under judicial control where there is a
significant risk that investors will be harmed.
The High Court was
told that Perpetual’s Mortgage Fund is illiquid and cannot meet the avalanche
of redemption requests. Assets held by
the fund may be insufficient to repay investors in full. Short of a winding up, there is a risk some
investors will be paid in full while others paid later may not. This raises the possibility of unequal
payouts to Mortgage Fund investors.
The Court was also
told of concerns that further related party lending could be sourced from the
Perpetual Cash Fund.
Court orders were made
streamlining the process for winding up the Perpetual Mortgage Fund and to
block any potential related party lending from the Perpetual Cash Fund.
Trustees
Executors v. Perpetual Trust – High Court (19.09.12)
12.028