A statement by Timaru businessman Allan Hubbard that he is in advanced talks to take over Hubbard Managed Funds by the end of the year has caught the statutory managers of his affairs by surprise.
"We have had no formal requests from Mr Hubbard on this type of proposal," the statutory managers said.
At a launch of his biography, Allan Hubbard: A Man Out of Time, by Virginia Green, Mr Hubbard said he would return to business, the Timaru Herald reported.
"I'm in advanced talks to take over Hubbard Managed Funds by the end of the year," he said.
Then he would take back control of his other investment company Aorangi Securities, also in statutory management, Mr Hubbard said.
Tardy interest payments by Aorangi Securities' borrowers continues to slow progress for the statutory managers with a total of $5 million still outstanding, statutory managers Richard Simpson, Trevor Thornton and Graeme McGlinn, of Grant Thornton New Zealand Ltd said in their fifth report today.
Mr Hubbard and his wife, Jean, their investment companies Hubbard Management Funds and Aorangi Securities and several charitable trusts were placed in statutory management on June 20, with a Serious Fraud Office investigation launched the following day.
South Canterbury Finance, the finance company associated with Mr Hubbard, is separately in receivership and has triggered a $1.6 billion payout under the Crown's retail deposit guarantee scheme.
Prime Minister John Key's Government carried out a "controlled demolition" of Mr Hubbard and his South Canterbury Finance company on a timetable designed to do it the least political damage, author Ms Green says.
