Inside Money: Aussie funds' freeze hits home

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Following the closure of all but one of the van Eyk Blueprint multi-manager funds in Australia, the New Zealand division of the firm has been forced to follow suit.

Last Friday van Eyk Advice NZ froze redemptions from seven products in its Blueprint series (also known under the PAM banner).

"The [affected funds] in the Blueprint Series have experienced considerable redemption requests," the Blueprint NZ announcement says. "The suspension of applications and redemptions for these Funds is in the best interests of unitholders."

The PAM funds - derived from the name of the company's former owner, Perpetual Asset Management - invest primarily into the, now-closed, underlying Blueprint Australia funds.

According to the most recent 2013 accounts, the Blueprint NZ series had accumulated about $150 million, although it is understood the funds under management have fallen significantly since last year.

While New Zealand investors have a relatively small amount at stake, the fast-developing crisis in the Australian headquarters of van Eyk/Blueprint, has drawn in the local financial cop.

A spokesperson from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) confirmed the regulator was investigating the van Eyk/Blueprint fund closure.

However, as the investigation spans at least three jurisdictions (NZ, Australia and the UK, where a 'liquidity event' at an underlying Blueprint manager, Artefact Partners, sparked the crisis), the process will undoubtedly be complex and time-consuming.

In the meantime, it is understood potential buyers, including independent advisory firm, Saturn Portfolio, are circling the van Eyk Advice NZ business. The group lists eight authorised financial advisers (AFA) on its website, down from the peak of 14 it achieved under previous owner, Perpetual.

The latest FMA statistics show overall AFA numbers have also fallen, slipping to 1,881 from the official headcount of 1,921 last year (although my 2013 research cut that tally to 1,895).