The court’s action removes control of the LM Managed Performance Fund – one of eight LM Investment Management (LMIM) funds that the company had in February when it placed itself into voluntary administration – from John Park and Ginette Muller of FTI Consulting, who continue in their role as administrators of the rest of the LM Group.
The LM Managed Performance Fund was the only one of the seven LMIM funds that was not registered with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).
In a statement today, FTI Consulting said it acknowledged the Supreme Court ruling transferring “control of the MPF, and its assets, including the debt on the Maddison Estate development, to KordaMentha” and Calibre Capital, a real estate funds management firm with offices in Sydney and Melbourne.
It added: “We respect the court’s decision and will continue to fulfil our duties, [and] we will focus on preserving value for all stakeholders.”
Separately, the court agreed to a request by FTI Consulting to extend by 90 days the time it has to investigate and report on the assets of the LM Group.
Licence suspended
In another development earlier this week, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission said it had suspended the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of LMIM for two years.
On Tuesday, ASIC said the terms of its suspension of LMIM’s AFS licence would still permit the firm’s voluntary administrators (FTI) “to provide financial services such as transfer to a new responsible entitity, investigating or preserving the assets or winding up the registered managed investment schemes operated by LM”.
"ASIC is continuing its inquiries in relation to the conduct of LM and will make no further comment at this time,” the statement added.
As reported, LM Investment Management, a Gold Coast, Australia-based fund manager which as recently as last year claimed to have assets under management of as much as A$3bn($3.1bn), was placed into voluntary administration on 18 March. The action was taken by the company’s board, which said it had been necessary to safeguard the the best interests of the company investors.
These are understood to include investors in more than 73 countries, as the company had representative offices in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Bangkok, London, Dubai and South Africa in addition to its head office in Australia. Most if not all of these regional offices are understood to have closed down or be in the process of being closed.
