Perpetual Trust scraps corporate trust unit in management buyout

Perpetual Trust will retain its wealth management and personal trustee businesses.  

But 300 issuing entities previously under appointment of Perpetual will transfer across to the new company.

Several entities currently in receivership or liquidation are to remain with Perpetual.Those include a number of collapsed finance companies.

Foundation Corporate Trust's managing director Matthew Lancaster and chairman Sam Maling announced the new trust at a media briefing in Auckland as the ink was still drying on the agreement.

"This is a completely separate entity and has no connection to Perpetual," Mr Maling said. He would not disclose the price for the acquisition.

Kim von Lanthen, former chief analyst at Treasury, has been revealed as owning all the shares in Foundation Corporate Trust, but other executives are expected to become owners in the future.

"This is all about a new business operating in a new environment with a new licence," Mr Maling said.

Perpetual's current management and board directors would move to the new business.

Foundation Corporate Trust will supervise funds across a range of different sectors.

Mr Lancaster said disruption to clients would be minor.

"It is our expectation that it will be business as usual in our relationship with clients other than the name change and requisite changes in some documentation.

"We will be contacting clients over the next few weeks to outline the process and documentation that is required to effect this change."

Mr Lancaster would not comment on the FMA's investigation into Perpetual Trust involving related party lending.

FMA update on securities trustees and stautory supervisors

The FMA said Corporate Trust had been granted a licence for a term of four-and-a-half years for all classes of securities and retirement villages.

Perpetual Trust has been granted a limited licence under the following classes for a term of 18 months:

• A trustee of finance companies in receivership and/or in liquidation
• A trustee in respect of unit trusts
• A trustee for KiwiSaver

Announcing the conclusion of its licensing process for securities trustees and statutory supervisors, the FMA said Superlife Trustee was declined a licence because it could not satisfy FMA that it was capable of effectively performing the functions of a trustee.

Public Trust, which was granted a licence by FMA last week, has been appointed as trustee for the Superlife KiwiSaver scheme.

All trustees and statutory supervisors are required to be licensed under the Securities Trustees and Statutory Supervisors Act 2011, which came into effect on 1 October 2011.

The FMA has now granted full entities to 10 entities.

Decisions on three further applicants are yet to be made.