Small investors have more than A$900m trapped in troubled fund manager Orchard's suite of unlisted property trusts as the sale of the head stock continues to play out.
Financial planners, responsible for channelling money from the "mums and dads" into the unlisted funds, are currently agitating for more control. An industry source said these groups had been galvanised into acting as Orchard's corporate advisers, KPMG Corporate Advisory, reviewed bids, which closed on Monday, for the listed head stock, Orchard Funds Management.
"They are very angry with what is happening at Orchard and particularly at the heavily dilutive deal that the management did with South Africa's Growthpoint Properties to inject capital into the listed Orchard Industrial Trust," the source said.
A Sydney-based property financier said the listed industrial trust was the best of all the Orchard trusts, and unitholders lost a lot of money as a result of the deal with Growthpoint.
The Australian
No comments yet