Property syndicators told off
The Securities Commission has reviewed the $1 billion plus syndicated property market and concluded the promoters need to do a far better job in describing their offerings.
Wednesday, April 5th 2000, 12:00AM
The review came about following concerns raised by the commission itself as well as a number of complaints from the public.
In its report the commission focussed on the "stapled products", that is the ones were an investor has to buy a package which has a minimum number of mortgage bonds and shares.
It concluded the law covering disclosure and promotion is "adequate", however it could be better implemented by some of the product offerers.
"It is important that promoters follow high standards of disclosure in offering investment opportunities to the public. On the evidence so far there is considerable room for improvement," report author Lay Wee Ng says.
"The problems lie, we think, with the way the law is being applied in practice."
Of particular concern was the lack of clarity and consistency over the method of disclosing the rate of return.
The commission notes that there are up to nine different ways returns could be stated and the promoters need to take care with how they handle this issue.
However, it doesn't go as far as suggesting which is the best method.
It says providing just a return figure for the mortgage bond part of the stapled investment is insufficient, as it ignores the shares.
One of the most commonly used forms of return expression is the combined rate of return on bonds and shares
"We think it may be misleading to highlight the combined rate of return on the investment in the initial forecast period without also giving information in an equally prominent manner to any deficits that the issuer expects to incur."
The commission also says assumptions used in forecasts, needed better explanation and in some cases the risks associated with the offering were underplayed.
"The potential of mislead or confuse arises when one piece of information is highlighted, usually the positive aspect for marketing purposes, to the exclusion of other, usually negative aspects."
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