Gould ready to buy struggling Vestar group

5:00AM Thursday May 08, 2008
By Tamsyn Parker

Troubled MFS-owned financial advisory group Vestar could have new owners by early next week.

Christchurch-based investment group Gould Holdings has reached a provisional agreement to buy the firm, provided it comes up to scratch under due diligence.

Gould Holdings director of strategy Jeff Staniland said the group had been in talks with Vestar over the past two weeks and hoped to complete analysis of the business by Tuesday.

"We are the preferred bidder. We are at the front of the queue and have been carrying out due diligence as part of that."

Staniland said it was also talking to Kelvin Syms, a current director of Vestar and founder of Northplan - one of several businesses MFS bought out when it entered the New Zealand market - to stay on with the business.

"We are still in discussions with him. But we see him as a very important part of the business."

Syms sold Northplan to MFS in 2006 for $52 million of which $42.5 million was paid in cash and the remainder in MFS shares.

MFS, now called Octaviar, also bought out Swains, Westplan and Colin Strang Financial Services and merged them together under the Vestar brand.

Last year the firm came under fire for having large numbers of investors in failed finance companies Bridgecorp, Capital + Merchant and Nathans Finance.

MFS New Zealand, which manages the business on behalf of its 38.8 per cent shareholder MFS, wrote to investors at the end of last year promising to ensure they "would not make a capital loss" on investments in Bridgecorp or Capital + Merchant.

It was working on a proposal for investors when MFS ran into financial trouble causing a domino effect when it could not help MFS New Zealand make payments to stakeholders in its subsidiary Pacific Finance.

MFS New Zealand has since gone into a trading halt while it waits for investors to vote on a moratorium proposal on May 19.

Staniland said the recent problems would be reflected in Vestar's price and said Gould would be paying "significantly less" than what MFS had paid for the business.

Staniland said it had yet to talk to MFS about promises it had made in the past regarding finance companies but did not feel Gould should be held to promises it did not make.

Gould Investments owns news media monitoring business Chong Bureau and has 70 per cent stakes in Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds, Mitre Peak Cruises and Milford Dart. It previously owned a stake in Mike Pero Mortgages.