Tower winds down lost member trust

TheTowergroup has announced that it will wind up the trust it set up to hold shares on behalf of members it could not track down following the group’s demutualisation almost three years ago.

Tower group managing director James Boonzaier says at the time of demutualisation there were about 200,000 members who could not be tracked down to be handed the shares they were entitled to as a result of the demutualisation.

Today, the number of missing members stands at about 100,000, he says.

“We’ve really given [the search for lost participants] a fair go. We’ve advertised in newspapers and have used special outfits who look for these lost accounts,” Boonzaier says.

The trust initially held the equivalent of 17.5 million fully paid Tower shares and has reduced this to 6.1 million Tower shares and NZ$5 million in cash. This now accounts for $34 million in total assets, which represents about 4 per cent of Tower’s total market capitalisation.

Boonzaier says the money will be reinvested back into operations to create a further profit for shareholders.

“We may even set some of the amount aside to be given as dividends further down the track, but there’re no plans for that at the moment. [Rolling the assets into Tower] effectively means the net asset value of Tower shares has gone up 4 per cent,” he says.

The Trust’s board was under no legal obligation to keep the trust open for any length of time, but the board had decided that two years should be given to try and reunite members with their assets.

Boonzaier says missing members who come to light after the July 5 deadline for the closure of the trust will still be given access to their assets by the Tower board.