Pyne Gould Corporation director and major shareholder George Kerr. Photo / Supplied
Pyne Gould Corp, whose Perpetual Trust unit is being investigated by the market watchdog, will repay $22 million in bank debt after selling down the bulk of its stakes in Heartland New Zealand and PGG Wrightson last week.
The Christchurch-based firm sold $8 million of stock in Heartland and $2
million of shares in Wrightson, on top of an earlier sell-down that reaped $15.4 million for Pyne Gould, it said in a statement after the close of trading yesterday. The excess $3.4 million will be "available for other investments", and the company plans to give a strategy update this week.
Managing director George Kerr "will provide a statement on the investment strategy for the PGC Group this week", it said.
The adequacy of Pyne Gould's disclosure has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after the Perpetual unit came under a Financial Markets Authority probe over $28 million of loans to the Torchlight Fund No 1 LP, which is managed by Kerr.
Pyne Gould said the share sales aren't required to cover the outstanding balance of the loan between the Torchlight fund and the Perpetual Cash Management Fund, which Torchlight said will be prepaid by the end of July.
