More Portus money to flow

Date: Thursday, February 12, 2009
Author: Advisor.ca

There was a time, long before Bernard Madoff took over the headlines, when the collapse of Portus Alternative Asset Management was considered a major case. Today there is some good news for investors in the failed hedge fund company.

KPMG, the bankruptcy trustee for the Portus estate, has begun mailing out cheques to about 19,000 investors. This latest disbursement represents a return of 62 cents on each dollar of principal.

Combined with two prior disbursements, investors have now recovered about 92 cents on the dollar.

"Pending resolution of some estate administrative issues, there is also likely to be a small final allocation as well, though the amount and timing of this has yet to be determined," said Robert Rusko, senior vice-president of KPMG Inc. "This is an extremely positive result for investors, especially given the scope and complexity of the Portus failure and bankruptcy."

Ironically, even without any additional distributions, the 8% loss posted by Portus investors may be the envy of many investors.