In a letter dated 28 November 2013, seen by InvestorDaily, RFM executive manager Andrea Lemmon acknowledged the misleading public statements it has made regarding agricultural management company ProTen’s offer to purchase 51 per cent of units in the RFM-administered Chicken Income Fund.
“It has been brought to our attention by ProTen that some of the statements we have made are not true and we wish to apologise to ProTen for any damage it has suffered as a result of us having made those statements,” the letter stated.
The letter officially retracts a number of allegations levelled at ProTen in RFM communications, including the suggestion that ProTen is “funding the Supreme Court of Victoria proceedings commenced by Sunset Amber Pty Ltd” – a unit-holder in the Riverbank fund – and that the company does “not have the capacity to settle on the purchases of 51 per cent of units in the [Chicken Income fFund]”.
In addition, the letter retracts a statement made on its website indicating ProTen is not financially secure and was unable to borrow funds from the bank. “We should not have made this statement because we are advised it is wrong and it could be incorrectly implied that ProTen is in financial difficulty or that it does not have the support of its bankers,” the letter states.
A source close to ProTen, speaking to InvestorDaily's sister publication ifa on condition of anonymity, said the letter from RFM “rights some of the wrongs” perpetrated by the fund manager in its communications with unit-holders in the relevant funds.
Corporations law has prevented ProTen from engaging in direct communications with investors in funds to which RFM is responsible entity, which has given the fund manager the ability to “say whatever it wants”, the source said.
The source also suggested the letter was a reaction to legal advice and possibly the intervention of the corporate regulator.
