AUGUST 2010
INVESTORS in Wellington Capital’s Premium Income Fund will unlikely see the $202 million owed to them by failed Gold Coast financier MFS (now Octaviar), says Wellington managing director Jenny Hutson.
Hutson, whose investment firm bought MFS after it went under in 2008, says she is ‘very disappointed’ by reports that MFS overstated its FY07 pre-tax profit by $65 million.
Octaviar was placed in liquidation by Bentleys Chartered Accountants.
“Their (MFS) pre-tax profit in 2007 included things that weren’t really profit, but were future transactions. These uncertain transactions were then booked in the account early to make the company look better,” says Hutson.
“They did it because they wanted and needed it to raise more capital and needed the share price to be higher when they were doing that.
“Wellington took over one of the funds after that collapse in a bid to save it – now I’ve got 10,000 investors who were attracted by what they thought was the success of MFS and with these statements there’s $202 million that probably won’t be distributed to us.”
Earlier this year Hutson teamed up with S8 founder and former chief executive of MFS Chris Scott, to lead the Gold Coast-based listed childcare company Early Learning Services (ELS), now trading as G8 education.
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