Viking loses faith in Dorchester Pacific
Dorchester Pacific founder Brent King now wants out of the company and seems prepared to accept ever lower prices to sell the stake in the finance company held by his Viking Capital.A substantial security holder notice from Viking lodged in late August shows the investor sold 400,000 shares in Dorchester for NZ$1.12 a share. As recently as February, Viking bought nearly 400,000 Dorchester shares, paying an average price of NZ$2.16.Viking still owns a little more than eight per cent of Dorchester and King said they will be sold."We don't have confidence in the company and the way it's being managed," he said.In particular, King takes issue with the company's decision in March to buy 25 per cent of fellow finance company St Laurence for NZ$29.6 million, saying that Dorchester paid too much.He also questions the wisdom of taking cash out of a finance company that had been warning about difficult times coming for several years - in last year's annual report, chief executive Andrew Walker wrote of "a more challenging finance market."Dorchester in March paid NZ$19.8 million in cash for just over 13 per cent of St Laurence, at a nominal NZ$2.05 a share.