Van Eyk's chief Mark Thomas has moved to distance the embattled firm's research arm from its funds unit, noting expressions of interest in the former after the financial services company confirmed the appointment of voluntary administrators.
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The collapse of the financial services company came after a tumultuous six-week period in which an illiquid $31 million investment led to the winding up of all but one of its Blueprint investment fund series. The decision, foreshadowed by Fairfax Media, follows a move to terminate 13 of the 14 Blueprint investment funds, which contributed at least 60 per cent of the company's revenue.
As the responsible entity of the funds in question, Macquarie Group forced their closure, a move that sparked criticism from shareholders and investors. Questions have been raised about the actions of van Eyk and Macquarie in recent months, particularly centring on why the Artefact issue was not identified sooner. Retail investors have thus far recovered some of their funds.
The chain of events has led to the unravelling of the Blueprint business and hurt the standing of van Eyk - which used to manage more than $1 billion - in the local market.
Mr Thomas labelled the appointment of administrators as regrettable, and declined to comment on whether Macquarie followed due process when the funds were shut down.
Instead, he noted that while "the Blueprint piece has created some negativity for the overall business, our high quality research division – in which a number of parties have expressed interest – has remained unchanged. The people behind the research arm remain unchanged."
Despite recent events, Mr Thomas said the research arm continued to pursue new initiatives.
"We are about to roll out a comprehensive fixed income review which has taken two months."
But the company has been hard hit by the Blueprint closures.The mandate breach was identified as a $31 million illiquid investment made by British-based hedge fund Artefact. The decision led to the termination of an initial four funds and a mountain of redemption requests which led Macquarie to wind up another 13 of the Blueprint funds.
Trent Hancock from international accounting and insolvency firm Moore Stephens has been appointed to oversee the voluntary administration.
Artefact's founder Richard Boon has said he is confident of returning 100¢ in the dollar of the redemption value to investors, but he declined to provide any details around the timing of this.
