Trinity Group stark unter Druck

Meldung vom 15. August 2009 / The Austalian:

BELEAGUERED property group Trinity Group has flagged a full-year loss of up to $220 million and revealed it is being sued by Queensland's largest private builder.

In what has been a devastating month for Trinity, the group yesterday said it expected to deliver a full-year loss of between $195m-$220m for the year to June, following property portfolio and "goodwill" writedowns.

"Trinity has experienced significant writedowns on assets and has also endured losses attributable to the recent disbanding of Trinity Development Group," chairman Keith De Lacy said.

"Trinity must now look to the future as it pursues its funds management strategy with immediate focus on renewal at board and management levels."

Late last month, Trinity's "independent advisory board" voted to remove Trinity as the manager of $800m worth of unlisted property trusts after a series of bungles.

The move followed revelations in The Australian that the group had made a secret $1m payment to then lobbyist Ross Daley.

The fees Trinity charged for managing the unlisted funds were a major source of income for the group.

The impact of those lost management fees were not reflected in yesterday's announcement.

Trinity yesterday said it had received a legal claim from J Hutchinson -- which trades as Hutchinson Group, Queensland's largest private builder -- alleging Trinity had breached the Trade Practices Act.

Trinity said it would take the "necessary steps" to defend the action, but was unable to comment further last night. Hutchinson was unavailable to comment.

In its guidance, Trinity wrote $46m off the value of its property portfolio, and wrote down $37m worth of "intangibles" the group had ascribed to its arm Trinity Development Group during the bull years.

The group also booked a $20m operating loss to the Trinity Development Group, which had previously been named Consolidated Properties Group before a Trinity takeover.

"In the first half of the year, Trinity suffered losses caused by goodwill impairment, development activities and hedging positions," Mr De Lacy said.

"In the second half Trinity is expected to have losses primarily attributable to asset writedowns."

Trinity said it would continue to sell down some property assets in a bid to reduce its loan-to-valuation ratio.

The group said it had negotiated an extension of its facilities with its major financier, National Australia Bank, to October 11, 2011.

Trinity has engaged Deloitte to investigate the secret $1m payment to Mr Daley, who at the time of the payment was Queensland's general manager of Enhance, the state's most powerful lobbying outfit.

Revelations of the payment sparked the Queensland Labor mates scandal and led to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh banning her MPs from attending party fundraisers with businesspeople, and to her ruling that government appointees could not also hold lobbyist positions.

The Deloitte investigation into the payment is continuing.

Trinity shares closed down 0.6c yesterday to 8.9c