MEDIA STATEMENT
Crown Asset Management acquires SCF assets
Crown Asset Management Limited has acquired South Canterbury Finance’s non-cash assets from the company’s Receivers. The
non-cash assets acquired by the Crown include:
• The portfolio of remaining loans in the Bad Bank loan book
• Sundry equity investments
• Remaining property investments
No cash will be paid to complete the acquisition, with settlement by way of the Crown releasing some of the debt that
SCF owes after the Crown paid depositors $1.58 billion under the terms of the now-expired Retail Deposit Guarantee
Scheme.
The Government last year announced that it would set up CAML to manage these assets. Now that it has acquired assets
from SCF’s Receivers, negotiations will commence with Receivers of other finance companies that were in the Retail
Deposit Guarantee Scheme to acquire those assets.
CAML Chairman Gary Traveller said the company would use premises in Christchurch that were previously occupied by SCF
and would continue to use staff who had been working for the Receivers on loan recoveries. CAML’s day-to-day operations
would be run by General Manager Sharon Burleigh.
Mr Traveller said CAML would be self funding, with operating costs covered by the revenue it generates from realisation
of assets and from repayments of loans that it has acquired. As with other Crown companies, CAML operates at arm’s
length from shareholding Ministers to ensure it has a commercial focus.