Investors in 10 single-asset property syndicates and six Austgrowth investment trusts valued at more than $130 million have called meetings to vote to replace their current manager, APGF, and appoint funds management group CYRE Trilogy.
Investors in each trust – amounting to significantly more than the 5 per cent of units needed to call each meeting – approached the fund manager and have given their approval to CYRE Trilogy to call the meetings on their behalf, which will be held in Sydney on 29 April.
While investors have for some time been unhappy with the lack of active management by Brisbane-based property group APGF of their properties, the situation came to a head with APGF’s recent merger proposal, according to CYRE principal and original founder of Austgrowth Peter Arnold.
“Investors in these funds were horrified with APGF’s merger proposal. The proposal was at total odds to the original investment parameters of the syndicate structures,” Arnold said.
“Investors were very annoyed at this proposal and the substantial costs which have been passed onto the investors in those syndicates that were affected.
“These investors deliberately invested in single-asset property trusts, so they were rightly angry to discover they were facing the prospect of having their assets locked away into an open ended fund which contained additional layers of fees with no clear exit strategy and mixed in with other funds in what can only be called an unholy alliance.”
The CYRE Trilogy partnership – a joint venture between Arnold and Trilogy Funds Management – will seek to manage the assets of the syndicates and trusts and Trilogy will also act as responsible entity.
