Singapore ruling leaves NAB in hot water

The backlash is likely to erupt today when MacarthurCook investors meet in Singapore to approve a refinancing by the NAB banking arm to keep the trust afloat.

By the end of the year the trustis obliged to repay $S226 million ($178 million) in debt and to buya $S90 million industrial property.It has said it does not have the money to repay the debt or to acquire the property.

The trust is owned 50 per cent by AMP and 10 per cent by Cambridge, in turn owned 60 per cent by NAB's investment arm.

At today's meeting it had intended to propose a resolution to oust the MacarthurCook manager, AIMS Financial Group, and replace it with Cambridge staff.

All proxies on the resolutions had to be in by Saturday, but that was before Singapore's regulators stepped in on Friday night to block Cambridge's plans to take over the management.

Today's meeting is expected to be attended by lawyers who believe there are serious issues of conflict involved and by angry investors who say they have been misled and kept in the dark about what has been happening in recent days.

Investors in MacarthurCook, including the deputy chairman, Greg Bundy, and the funds manager Mark Thorpe-Apps say NAB is conflicted by the actions given its role as the group's financier for the fund's recent $S430-million rescue package.

That involved a share placement to "cornerstone" investors, a rights issue and $215 million in loans. At the same time Cambridge emerged as a new shareholder with a 10 per cent stake.

Mr Thorpe-Apps said yesterday that the issue was becoming "farcical" and the NAB had lost a lot of face among Singapore investors as a result. But the NAB said the situation showed that the bank's various operations acted independently.

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