farms in mis strife

MIS is a toxic cocktail not only in trees,notice singleton's suggested foray from previous thread into Ark fund,then onto in the reward's group


Farms in MIS strife

March 24, 2010---herald and weekly times
ONE of Australia's last managed investment scheme operators is struggling to pay the rent on 32 properties, including two strawberry farms in the Yarra Valley.

MIS operator, the Rewards Group, leases the farms from the ARK fund, which is itself struggling to meet its obligations on a $33 million debt it has with the National Australia Bank.

ARK voluntarily suspended its share trading last month, while it waited for the Rewards Group to raise the funds needed to refinance and repay the rent.

ARK's largest shareholder is the Rewards Group and both companies operate out of the same address at 50 Colin St, Perth.

ARK notified the Australian Securities Exchange on February 26 that it had given the Rewards Group a deadline of March 15 to pay the rent.

But as of yesterday, ARK had failed to update the ASX on what was happening.

The Rewards Group manages $250m of investors funds across Australia.

The Weekly Times has spoken to one major law firm, which has already advised some Rewards MIS investors on their legal options if the Rewards Group fails to refinance.

Rewards' MIS projects include 109ha of strawberries and blueberries in the Yarra Valley, plus other properties in Queensland and Western Australia growing strawberries, tropical fruit, sandalwood and teak.

The company's website states that its export markets include Hong Kong, Japan, the Middle East, South-East Asia, China, Singapore, France, Holland and Canada.

The Weekly Times could not reach the Rewards Group for comment before deadline.

Meanwhile, Timbercorp liquidators are demanding almond grower Select Harvest repays an estimated $8 million owed to a subsidiary of the failed MIS operator.

Select Harvests says it deducted about $8 million for services provided in managing and harvesting trees owned by Timbercorp subsidiary, Almond Management Pty Ltd.

But in an announcement to the ASX last week, Select Harvest's board stated it was entitled to make the deductions from harvest proceeds and intended to dispute the Timbercorp liquidators' claim.