About the Trust

History

The case against Kerry Hoggard was taken by shareholders Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, Margaret Northcroft and Catharine Franks, and was led by commercial lawyer Stephen Franks.

The group decided to take a private shareholder's case after Mr Hoggard bought $635,000 of Fletcher Challenge shares the day before the company's restructuring was announced. The share price rose significantly when the changes were revealed. A Securities Commission investigation found that the Securities Markets Act 1988 had been breached. When the Commission then mysteriously declined to take any remedial action against Mr Hoggard the shareholder group felt it impugned the probity of New Zealand business generally.  

The shareholders applied to pursue an insider trading case on behalf of the company and the market using a right in securities law that has since been removed, for equally mysterious reasons. The court allowed the action to proceed. Eventually a confidential out-of-court settlement was reached. The amount of the settlement was such that it was 'abundantly clear' that a court would have found in favour of the consortium of shareholders.

The court approved the payment of the balance of the settlement after reimbursement of the costs of the case, to establish the Trust. 

The Trust is incorporated under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957.

The Trust's work

Since it was formed the Trust has had a number of approaches from parties seeking assistance. It has fully underwritten one appeal, assuring the appellants of cover should they attract an adverse costs award, and made several grants. It has partially underwritten adverse cost exposures in a number of cases. It has explored the prospects of legal recovery action with a range of other applicants. In effect it has offered the kind of objective scrutiny that is a feature of litigation funding involvement in a case. The result in a number of cases has been decisions not to throw good money after bad.

After the deaths of founding trustees Sir Ronald Trotter and Roger Kerr the Trust lost momentum. It accumulated investment returns, supported several high profile shareholder class actions as a minor participant, and donated money for financial journalism prizes. 

During that period a delay in filing annual returns resulted in suspension of registration as a charity. That in turn resulted in IRD questions about the proper tax treatment. Despite the evidence of court approval of the Trust as a charity, the Charities Services Board took years to restore registered status. 

During that time the trustees maintained record keeping and accounting but did not actively seek projects to support. Among other reasons being that third parties (brokers and the Trust's bank) were uncertain about the consequences of suspension of registration and were reluctant to effect transactions in the Trust's investments 

The Trust was advised in February 2026 that registration had been confirmed. It is again “open for business”. The Trust wants its purpose to be broadly known and has accordingly established this website to explain its criteria and promote its objectives.