PGC sells remaining Heartland shares

Pyne Gould Corporation has sold out of the lending group Heartland which it formed 18 months ago.

PGC said this morning it had sold its remaining investment, 15.2 million shares in Heartland (HNZ), for $7.9 million.

‘‘Following this trade, PGC (through its wholly owned subsidiary Torchlight Securities) no longer holds any shares in HNZ,’’ the company told NZX. The proceeds of this sale will be used for further investment.

The share prices of both PGC and Heartland were unmoved by the news.

The formation of Heartland was the result of the huge recapitalisation of PGC in late 2009 to save it and its subsidiary Marac Finance from collapse.

A year later Marac combined with two building societies to form Heartland, and a few months after that the finance arm of PGG Wrightson was included.

PGC shareholders were apportioned PGC’s shares in Heartland mid last year but two months later PGC bought back into Heartland – at a premium to the Heartland share price at the time – as part of Heartland’s capital raising to buy PGW Finance.

PGC increased its stake in Heartland in February to just over 12 per cent. In the past three weeks it has been selling down its stake and today completed that.

It is embroiled in a dispute with the Financial Markets Authority over a $28 million loan from PGC’s conservative Perpetual Cash Management Fund to the PGC owner George Kerr-managed Torchlight fund. PGC has indicated an option it is considering is to split off the Torchlight business and list that in Australia and its other Perpetual business may be bought by its senior management.