Podmore offered to take pay cut

Photo / Brett Phibbs

St Laurence boss Kevin Podmore wanted to take a $125,000 annual pay cut if investors approved a now-ditched restructuring scheme for the troubled business.

The Wellington finance chief and accountant, originally from Bulls, was on $450,000. He says his annual pay would have been pruned to $325,000 under the deal.

Podmore's proposal was out-gunned by Perpetual Trustee which on Thursday put St Laurence into receivership. Matthew Lancaster of Perpetual said Podmore's pay and employment was now a matter for the Deloitte receivers.

Perpetual and Deloitte have refused to give any projections of investor payouts and said the situation would not be known for two months when the initial report on the business will be released.

One investor was surprised Podmore had earned so much and said $325,000 was extravagant.

Rowland Crone, owed $20,000, called for a much harsher pay cut, saying Podmore should follow the lead of embattled United States car company bosses.

"Kevin Podmore should work for nothing and put some real effort in returning some real cash as early as possible to elderly investors, instead of making empty promises," Crone said.

Podmore said he did not live lavishly and drove a 6-year-old Audi.

His salary came from St Laurence Funds Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of St Laurence which owes investors $245 million.

Debenture holders are owed $234 million and capital note holders $11 million.

In 2008, they approved a recapitulation plan for 70 per cent of debenture holders to be repaid by the end of 2013, the rest by 2021. Capital note holders would be repaid by 2034.

Podmore said that in hindsight that was far too long and he realised some of the older investors might not be alive in 24 years. "It's reflective of the fact that at the time, we even got that wrong. The conditions have been a lot harder than we envisaged."

St Laurence's assets are management of NZX-listed National Property Trust, management of the NZDX-listed Irongate Property which Podmore said owned properties worth about $250 million and management of a group of property syndicates.

St Laurence:

* Owes 9000 investors $245m

* Debt-for-equity swap was proposed

* That would avoid receivership

* Perpetual Trust opposed the deal

Appointed receivers on Thursday