Great Southern bosses back in business - The West Australian8...

Great Southern bosses back in business - The West Australian8 Dec 2010 ... Great Southern founder John Young, former chief executive Cameron Rhodes and one-time national sales manager Neville Hill are 20 per cent ...
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Eighteen months after the collapse of forestry plantation manager Great Southern left almost 43,000 investors $1.8 billion out of pocket, the major figures behind the group are back in business selling "specialist" investment products.

Great Southern founder John Young, former chief executive Cameron Rhodes and one-time national sales manager Neville Hill are 20 per cent partners in Vault Financial Group, which has begun work on a new national network.

Vault reached an agreement last month to distribute one of the Royal Bank of Scotland's investment products, self-funding instalments, or "geared-equity" warrants, beginning in the new year.

Mr Rhodes said Vault had been established "to look out for opportunities in the financial services sector, whether that's to develop our own products or distribute other products".

"I think it's a great product for a self-managed superannuation fund," Mr Rhodes said. "(It) is a good, conservative way of introducing very modest gearing into blue-chip stocks to help people accelerate their retirement planning."

Its website says Vault will soon also offer structured and property products.

Despite putting up a sizeable portion of the equity for the parent company, Vault Group Holdings, Mr Young's involvement had been "minimal", Mr Rhodes said.

Mr Rhodes and Mr Hill are directors of Vault, along with Brad Gunn and Timothy Jess who, with Brian Collins, own the rest of the company. Vault currently has no other staff. Its website is short on detail about the business backgrounds of the five directors, who are described as "individuals who have a long history in the financial services sector". No mention is made of Great Southern.

Vault has headquarters in Sydney, with each of the directors based in a different capital city, including Mr Rhodes, in Perth. Great Southern collapsed in May last year - just weeks after rival MIS operator Timbercorp - having raised more than $2.3 billion from 43,000 investors in its 45 managed investment scheme projects in timber, horticulture and cattle.

About 4500 West Australian investors, including former WA premier Brian Burke, were caught up in the collapse.

Mr Young co-founded Great Southern in 1987 and was chief executive for 20 years until Mr Rhodes took over in 2008.

Vault Advisory Services, trading as Vault Financial Group, was granted an Australian Financial Services Licence at the start of the year. It is fully owned by Vault Group Holdings.