THE Satterley Property Group emerged as something of a white knight for Menzies Court two years ago, providing the $30 million worth of credit financing that allowed phase one of the stalled Stirling Lakes development in Karrinyup to go ahead.
Since then, Menzies Court has changed its name to Port Bouvard, the Stirling Lakes development has been renamed Princeton, and in the next few weeks the Satterley Group will step back from its role as project managers to undertake a marketing role for the now-successful development.
WA Business News understands that Port Bouvard holds a majority interest in the site, with Kevin Pollock, whose earth-moving business failed recently, also said to be closely linked to the estate.
Announcing Port Bouvard’s net profit of $7.9 million for the six months ending December 31, the company’s directors last week forecast a final dividend of 7 cents per share for the second half of the year.
This appears to be on track for a substantial improvement on the net loss of $325,000 for the 2001-2002 financial year, when Satterley Group came to Menzies Court’s aid on the project.
The Satterley Property Group financed the development of about 230 lots in stage one, and had an option to acquire Menzies Court’s 50 per cent stake in the remaining land.
Satterley Property Group principal Nigel Satterley said the option was not exercised because the price was above expectation, with development costs a concern.
But he said the outcome of the arrangement with Port Bouvard was very positive.
“This was the second most complex deal that we have undertaken, and definitely the riskiest, but the project is now very successful and we are expecting a complete handover in the next couple of weeks,” Mr Satterley said.
Satterley Property Group was appointed project and sales managers and received a share of net profits from sales. A commercial fee was also received for providing the credit enhancement.
Mr Satterley said the group had been involved in a number of mezzanine debt ventures and would certainly look at doing similar deals in the future.
In its recent announcement, Port Bouvard chairman Michael Perrott said there had been a slow-down in land sales at both the Port Bouvard and Princeton estates in the opening months of this year compared with the boom conditions of 2002-2003.
If the trend was to continue at the current reduced rates, he said, it was likely that sales at the two estates would continue into 2007.