Investors caught up in the collapsed Credit Sails investment fund are being urged to seek independent legal and financial advice over the settlement offer they are due to receive.
Otago investors will get almost $16 million back, with an 85c-in-the-dollar payout, from a $60 million settlement fund from the five companies which created Credit Sails - Forsyth Barr Ltd of Dunedin, Forsyth Barr Group Ltd, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Credit Sail Ltd and Calyon Hong Kong Ltd.
In a letter sent to affected investors this week, Wanaka-based Logic Fund Management ''strongly'' recommended investors, for whom Credit Sails was the only failed security purchased from 2003 to 2011, accept the offer.
But for those investors with another failed ''product'', such as Feltex, South Canterbury Finance preference shares, Strategic Finance debentures and preference shares and Dominion Finance, the firm suggested they might consider delaying their acceptance to allow them to use Credit Sails as an example of the failed duty of care in a Disputes Tribunal claim for compensation.
Chief executive Greg Marshall, who has spent more than three years chasing a resolution of the fund, said the firm had been approached by a number of investors who had lodged and were considering lodging claims against Forsyth Barr for those and other failed products.
They were citing a failed duty of care in relation to the advisory mandate they agreed with their adviser and breach of the Consumer Guarantees Act.
The information disclosed in the Commerce Commission report into Credit Sails might be relevant in relation to making those claims for other failed products, Mr Marshall said.
The preliminary results from the initial claims were expected by mid-May and the period from then to November 20 would provide enough time for investors to consider the outcomes and lodge an individual claim for other failed products using the Commerce Commission report as evidence, he said.
The firm recommended investors review the Disputes Tribunal decision and the potential impact on any claim they might be considering. Once they had concluded with any Disputes Tribunal claim, they should accept the Credit Sails offer, he said.
