Unhappy AIMS fund investors call for wind-up, again
Disenchanted shareholders in the AIMS Property Securities Fund have launched their third effort in five years to wind up the struggling trust, which trades at a hefty discount to its net assets.
This time around, investors Sandon Capital and Samuel Terry Asset Management have joined forces to call a meeting in December for shareholders to vote on winding up the fund.
It is not the first time into the fray for Fred Woollard’s Samuel Terry Asset Management which also failed in an effort early last year to shut down the property securities fund managed by George Wang’s AIMS Fund Management platform.
Sandon and Samuel Terry have a collective interest in the fund of 18.6 per cent, making them individually and collectively the largest independent unitholders of the AIMS-run vehicle.
The disgruntled investors face an uphill battle. AIMS Financial Group has voted its 32 per cent direct holding along with the 9 per cent held by MacarthurCook Office Property Trust to defeat wind-up proposals in previous votes.
Mr Woollard set out a series of issues in a letter to shareholders this week, beginning with the fund’s “excessive discount” of more than 25 per cent to its net tangible assets per unit.
He also accused the fund of having weak corporate governance with non-disclosure of fees and related party investments along with its deteriorating financial performance.
“Unitholders are likely to receive significantly more cash per unit in an orderly wind up than the current market price of $1.75,” Mr Woollard wrote.
The fund’s NTA was $2.37 at the end of June this year.
The AIMS group’s resistance to previous wind-up proposals was due to its need to protect the fees it earns and its other non-member interests in the fund, according to Mr Woollard.
“It is these fees – the quantum of which is unclear because AIMS refuses to disclose them – and interests that are largely responsible for the fund continually trading well below its NTA,” he wrote.
“We believe the fund serves no purpose, except to its responsible entity and the AIMS Financial Group, and should be wound up in an orderly manner.
But Mr Wang countered those claims with his own accusations that the two activist investors were motivated by a desire to turn a quick profit on their investment in the fund.
Under AIMS control since 2009, the fund’s net tangible assets have been steadily improved and its debt reduced, Mr Wang told The Australian Financial Review.
