News last week that investors in defunct Canadian hedge fund Portus Alternative Asset Management would receive upwards of 85% of their investments back did little to cool tempers at a shareholders meeting in a Toronto hockey arena yesterday. Investors lashed out at court-appointed trustee KPMG, which told the apoplectic assembly it was unsure when investors would get all of the money it has recovered back. Part of the problem is that some C$529 million (US$475.5 million) of the found money is tied up in notes issued by Société Générale Canada which don’t mature for between two and five years. Five trustees appointed to represent shareholders yesterday will decide whether to liquidate those investments now, or wait until they mature, when they might be worth as much as C$611 million (US$549.2 million). During the four hours of fury, frustrated investors accused KPMG of doing nothing to earn the more than C$13 million (US$11.7 million) it’s racked up in fees so far, leaving livid after what one investor told the Globe and Mail was a “waste of time.” Incidentally, Portus principal Boaz Manor, who fled to Israel following the HF’s collapse, did not accept an invitation to appear at the meeting, either in person or by videophone.
