Marac's parent, Pyne Gould Corp, seeks banking licence

Pyne Gould Corp, the owner of Marac Finance and Perpetual Trust, has announced it will restructure its operations and seek a banking licence. It said it was also conducting a structural review and was considering returning the shares it owns in PGG Wrightson to shareholders. Here is the full statement below from Pyne Gould Corp.

Pyne Gould Corporation Limited (PGC) announced today that it proposes to restructure its operations to become the only New Zealand owned publicly listed bank. The Company has had discussions with the Reserve Bank and will soon submit an application for banking registration. Brian Jolliffe, Managing Director of Pyne Gould Corporation, said "In the current environment this further demonstrates our financial integrity as we will be subject to the increased scrutiny of the Reserve Bank. "Our two existing financial services businesses, MARAC and Perpetual will form the core of the new bank. This restructuring into a "specialist" bank will enable these businesses to better meet the needs of their customers by offering financial services to both small and medium sized businesses throughout New Zealand and also specialist personal banking for individuals." The move by Pyne Gould Corporation to bank status is a continuation of the path that the Company has been following for the last several years of developing specialised financial services operated within prudent financial guidelines. Brian continued, "MARAC has become known for its conservatism and prudence on behalf of its investors and shareholders and already has many of the features of a bank. Perpetual also already provides many of the services of a bank. The new bank will continue to offer the majority of the current services of both companies while focusing on what they do best. We will not duplicate the broader activities of the other mainstream banks." As part of this process the Board of PGC is reviewing ownership of non-banking assets. For example the Board is considering doing an in specie distribution to shareholders of its PGG Wrightson stake. This is likely to be done over time by way of future dividend options to align with imputation credits. The Board will also consider other structural options.