More trusts look at deed changes

Macquarie Goodman chief executive John Dakin said yesterday that the changes institutional investors wanted at Kiwi were high on the agenda for Macquarie and being actively considered.

"It's really about investors saying they want more accountability, and, at the end of the day, it's their money and we need their support to have a business so you've got to listen to those views," he said.

Andrew Hardwick Evans, ING Property Trust managing director, said the proposed changes were not controversial. "They're quite acceptable and, clearly if the market is moving in that direction, we will follow in due course."

Investors holding 22 per cent of Kiwi's units by value, including AMP Capital Investors, Alliance Capital Management, ACC, Brook Asset Management, BT Funds Management, ING, Tower and Walker Capital Management, have forced a special meeting in Auckland on December 9.

Some want to discuss concerns they have about Kiwi's Sylvia Park retail development in Auckland.

They are unhappy that the 1960 Unit Trusts Act, under which property trusts operate, requires a lower level of corporate governance than the 1993 Companies Act, with which listed companies must comply.

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