ACC emerges as holder of National Property Trust as Irongate sells down stake

Friday 14th May 2010

Accident Compensation Corporation, the state-owned accident insurer, has emerged as a substantial holder of shares in National Property Trust after a property investor managed by the St Laurence group sold down its stake.

ACC acquired 10.85 million shares in the diversified property investor, which is currently facing a revolt against its manager, also a St Laurence entity. ACC paid 49 cents a share for the stake yesterday, lifting its holding to about 9%.

Shares of NAP rose 6.3% to 51 cents on the NZX today and have gained about 30% in the past 12 months. Irongate Property Ltd., managed by St Laurence, yesterday sold 15 million shares to raise $7.4 million, reducing its holding to 1% from 8.8%. A spokesman for ACC wasn’t immediately available to comment on the purchase.

St Laurence got to keep its management contracts for Irongate and NAP when the trustee for its debenture holders placed the group in receivership this month, ignoring a proposal from St Laurence managing director Kevin Podmore to offer shares in a new company to its debt holders.

The pressure is being ratcheted up on St Laurence, after a group of NAP unit holders led by David Cushing, of H&G Limited, this week pushed for the termination of St Laurence’s management contract, claiming its fees were too high given NAP’s lacklustre performance. The trustee, Guardian Trust, today acknowledged that unit holders with 10.3% of the units had sought a meeting to vote on ousting the manager and it was working on arrangements.

Irongate changed its name from St Laurence Property & Finance to distance itself from St Laurence, which owns about a third of the company, and its shares, which trade on the Unlisted platform, halved this week after the NAP challenge.

Businesswire.co.nz

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