Peace breaks out for Kiwi Property

Chief executive Angus McNaughton at the annual meeting in Porirua yesterday. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Kiwi Income Property Trust's annual meeting may have been held at a cinema but that didn't make it a showstopper.

About 50 unit holders were in attendance at the Porirua cinema to listen to chairman Sean Wareing and chief executive Angus McNaughton, neither of whom prompted a barrage of questions. There had been earlier predictions the trust was in for a showdown with disgruntled institutional investors over plans for the 62,000sq m development at Auckland's Sylvia Park.

Investors are also concerned the 1960s Unit Trusts Act, which Kiwi operates under, required a lower level of corporate governance than 1993's Companies Act. Investors, including Brook Asset Management, BT Funds Management, Tower and ING, had requested an extraordinary general meeting through Kiwi's trustee, New Zealand Permanent Trustees.

The meeting will take place in November under an independent chairman.