Half a million payout for Southern Capital director

Friday 15th June 2001

By Chris Hutching

One of Southern Capital's founding executive directors, Phil Burmester, has resigned and renegotiated changes to the five-year restraint of trade agreement he had with the company.

Mr Burmester and founding partner Howard Paterson each received $500,000 as part of the arrangement.

A second $500,000 potentially payable to each remains in the books as a $1 million contingent liability but chances of it being paid out look unlikely because certain performance targets for property developments have not been met.

Southern Capital managing director Graeme Wong said he had negotiated a new three-year arrangement providing for any significant investment propositions to be offered first to Southern Capital and in return Mr Burmester's salary is terminated.

"The old contract had 18 months to run. This will leave Phil free to pursue some of the smaller property deals that are his forte while giving us first pick at anything over a certain size. We're quite relaxed about it."

The departure of Mr Burmester has been rumoured in Christchurch business circles for some weeks and the new arrangement will give him more flexibility to trade his 10% stake in Southern Capital as well as smaller property deals. A new director, Paul Davenport, has been appointed and will take up the post soon.

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