Blue Chip's Bryers set to relist company on Aust sharemarket

Mark Bryers. Photo / Supplied

The co-founder of collapsed property investment company Blue Chip plans to relist one of his companies in Australia despite facing court charges here.

Mark Bryers had been expected to appear in court in Auckland last week to face charges over management of his company Swordfish Lodge Management, in which investors have lost more than $1 million.

Bryers did not appear in court and the charges were deferred until March 27. He is also expected to face further charges from the Companies Office for breaches of the Companies Act.

The $80 million failure of his Blue Chip company more than a year ago left more than 3000 New Zealand investors out of pocket,

None of this was mentioned in a "business update" to the Australian sharemarket company, the ASX, when last week he made a list of commitments towards relisting Northern Crest Investments by the end of the month. Bryers said Northern Crest, formerly Blue Chip Financial Services, had completed arrangements to raise interim finance totalling A$3 million and would later seek money from shareholders.

He told the ASX that Northern Crest was returning to profit after the ASX suspended it from trading in August last year for failing to pay annual listing fees.

In the notice, Bryers says Northern Crest's unnamed board was investigating how it could assist the former New Zealand franchise's clients who had suffered losses.

Bryers said the new company was more robust and would return to a profitable trading position despite the impact of the global recession.

- NZPA