Verdict due on extending Boston Finance moratorium

Investors in one of the first finance companies to go into moratorium should know soon if it will be extended.

Boston Finance entered into a 20-month repayment plan in March last year promising to pay investors back all of their money as well as 9 per cent interest.

The moratorium was due to end on November 14 but seems likely to be extended after the firm's independent adviser KordaMentha warned the company was unlikely to meet its repayment schedule in the current market conditions.

Matthew Lancaster, a spokesman for Perpetual Trust, the trustee for the company, said it expected to give investors a "comprehensive" update in a couple of weeks.

Lancaster said he was waiting to get some certainty on the outcome of a number of events before talking to investors about "where things were at."

One of those events is likely to be a Blue Chip test court case in the High Court at Auckland.

According to its annual report Boston Finance loaned money for a number of Blue Chip apartments.

The judgment is expected to be released in the next few weeks.

Boston Finance went into moratorium several months before its sister company OPI Pacific Finance, both of which were ultimately owned by Australian investment company Octaviar.

OPI Pacific Finance was recently placed into receivership after Octaviar went liquidation. But Lancaster said Boston operated as a separate company and the fate of OPI was not linked to it.