23 Jul 2012

Torchlight still repaying Perpetual - PGC

11:24 pm on 23 July 2012

The Torchlight Fund managed by Pyne Gould Corporation has repaid a further $9 million to the Perpetual Cash Management Fund.

Torchlight Fund, run by Pyne's majority shareholder George Kerr, borrowed $28 million dollars from Perpetual - also a Pyne Gould business.

That led to an investigation by the Financial Markets Authority over allegations of undisclosed related-party transactions.

Pyne Gould says more than $9 million was paid back last week after the sale of property, on top of $13 million already repaid.

The company says the remaining $3.5 million will be paid shortly.

Earlier in July, the George Kerr-controlled Pyne Gould Corporation sold its remaining 3.9% stake in lender Heartland New Zealand - a parcel of 15 million shares which fetched $7 million.

The company said at the time that it had already collected $25 million from progressively reducing its holding in Heartland and PGG Wrightson and $22 million of that would be used to repay bank debt.