This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A PROLONGED storm of controversy around Blue Sky Alternative Investments has seen the group into administration, after the Brisbane-based group breached a $50 million funding deal with US-based Oaktree Capital Management.
Blue Sky manages $2.8 billion of assets and has been reeling from an investigation published more than one year ago by Glaucus Research Group that challenged its reporting integrity.
Soon after, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission began investigating whether the group has breached continuous disclosure obligations.
After its share price peaked at around $14.54 late in 2017, the group’s shares crashed to 18 cents and is now barred from trading on the ASX.
Law firms Gardens, Piper Alderman and Shine Lawyers are looking to oversee class actions against Blue Sky on the grounds it misrepresented the value of its assets.
A restructure of Blue Sky’s investment management business throughout the first half of the financial year saw an exit from its hedge fund business and retirement living real estate development business; selling its share of the retirement village operating business, and reduced its headcount across all remaining divisions.
It had already breached its Oaktree debt agreement twice this year – having secured the seven-year senior secured loan note facility in October – and Oaktree called in receivers KordaMentha yesterday, while Pilot Partners have been appointed as voluntary administrators.
After posting a $25.7 million interim loss, the group’s chief financial officer, Elizabeth Walker, resigned for personal reasons in March, less than a week after the appointment of Joel Cann as new chief executive. Cann commenced in the role of CEO on 15 April.
Blue Sky Alternative Investments and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board recently terminated their agreement to deploy capital across agricultural investments.
Australian Property Journal
