Pelorus Property Group is pitching bids to take over more than half of Centro Properties Group’s 30 syndicates.
The fund manager has called a meeting of Centro MCS 19 NZ-I investors to vote on substituting Pelorus in place of Centro MCS Management as the responsible entity.
It follows Pelorus’s earlier bid for Centro MCS 16, which will be voted on at a meeting on March 31. The new meeting will be held on April 2.
Pelorus chief executive Stuart Brown said the group is looking at taking over management control of Centro syndicates 19 and under.
Many of the investors are clients of New Zealand financial advisory firm Money Managers, whose clients make up a significant proportion of seven of the syndicates.
The firm asked Pelorus to take control of those seven after it became concerned about management problems at Centro
Centro ran into refinancing problems and admitted it may be unable to honour its hedging obligations on the syndicates and has suspended distributions on MCS 16.
On Friday the shopping centre giant reported a $1.1 billion net profit half-year loss.
Under the deal, Pelorus said it would reduce management and other fees and resolve certain property issues.
It said if Centro stayed on as manager of MCS 19, investors would face a likely interest cost increase and net asset backing reduction if Centro can’t honour its hedging obligations.
“The reason this has come about is the concerns that Money Managers had had about Centro’s management of the syndicates for quite a while,” Pelorus chief executive Stuart Brown told InvestorDaily.
“The problems that Centro has found itself in has heightened these concerns.”
Centro MCS Management Gerard Condon told investors in January 24 that the group would honour time frames on all its syndicates.
