peacock quits

FORMER Liberal leader Andrew Peacock will quit as chairman of debt-stricken property finance group MFS.

Mr Peacock told shareholders meeting in Melbourne this morning he would step down in May.

"i was in fact resigning as of today and I have changed my mind about that,'' Mr Peacock said.

"I am staying on in the shorter term to get through this transition.''

He said he was resigning because of other business commitments in Australia and the US.

Mr Peacock did not offer an apology for the company's dire financial state.

Gold Coast-based MFS went into meltdown in January after revealing $550 milllion in short-term debt.

About $750 million of mum-and-dad investors' money is locked up in its Premium Income Fund, frozen because of the company's precarious finances.

The meeting today approved a name-change for the company, to Octavair.