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Rod Petricevic has confirmed the Australian arm of his Bridgecorp finance company is looking to raise more funds, less than a year after being ordered by the regulator to withdraw its unsecured notes offering and repay Australian investors.
"Bridgecorp Australia is exploring other fundraising instruments in the Australian market, there's no decision made on what form these may take," Petricevic said yesterday.
Last August, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission obtained orders from the Supreme Court of New South Wales restricting Bridgecorp's Australian subsidiary from raising more funds in Australia by way of an unsecured notes offering.
It also required Bridgecorp to repay existing noteholders as their investments matured and have its loan book reviewed by an independent expert.
Petricevic said Bridgecorp Australia had been repaying investments and investor funds, down to about A$25 million from A$180 million a couple of years ago.
"As we believe everything is winding down in an orderly fashion, we're considering what our options are."
Those options "absolutely" included looking for other opportunities in Australia.
ASIC applied for the orders after a study of the company's December 2005 prospectus and a supplementary one in February "raised significant concerns" about its position.
The company struck difficulties through its A$33.5 million investment in property developer Westpoint, which collapsed in February last year.
