As reported exclusively here yesterday, LMIM revealed its plans to place itself in “voluntary administration” in an email notice sent on Tuesday morning to clients, who are said to be located in more than 73 countries around the world.
In that email, LMIM said that the company’s board had taken the decision “after full consideration of its obligations as a company and its duties to ensure it acts in the best interests of investors”, although it did not say what “events over the past couple of weeks” had caused the company to be “in imminent jeopardy of being unable to meet creditor obligations”.
Today, founder Peter Drake explained in a statement to the press that a combination of being "on the receiving end of Trilogy’s relentless ten-month campaign of alarming and misleading statements to our domestic and international advisers and investors", coupled with "the strong Aussie dollar", had put LMIM under pressure, giving its board no choice but to opt for voluntary administration.
Trilogy Capital Group is another Australian company, which took control of LMIM’s LM Wholesale First Mortgage Fund in November.
"Had we not acted, this perfect storm of impacts meant we may have been unable to meet our obligations," Drake added in his statement, which may be read in its entirety here.
Drake said John Park and Ginette Muller of FTI Consulting had been named “voluntary administrators”, in an effort to keep the company going and to enable it to “protect its funds and continue to act in the best interests of their investors".
"This is not a liquidation or receivership, and neither LMIM nor any of its funds are in liquidation or receivership," Drake added.
Drake said the company’s nine investment funds would "continue to be managed in accordance with their governing documents and the applicable Corporations Act and Trustee Law".
He added: "The FTI team will be working with LM’s senior investment personnel to optimise outcomes for all stakeholders. In addition, the Voluntary Administrator must fully comply with its own requirements under the Corporations Act, in its administration role."
Headquartered in Gold Coast, Australia, LMIM specialises in mortgage funds, and as recently as the third quarter of 2012, was reported to have AUM of A$3bn. Its staff of 130 worked out of offices in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Bangkok, London, Dubai and South Africa in addition to Australia.
An Australian business news website, GoldCoast.com, today described the Surfers Paradise-based company as "high profile", and noted that it had been mentioned in a recent Australia Broadcasting Corporation documentary which looked at concerns about the funds management industry.
