Metrics' asset valuations were unrealistic. Who knew?!
KPMG sorts Metrics' sheep from its goats.
It has been 18 months since financial adviser network Count Financial slapped out-of-cycle 'redeem' recommendations on three Metrics Credit Partners funds and Metrics boss Andrew Lockhart responded indignantly that "I'm certainly not aware of any reason why that would be an appropriate recommendation for an investor."
Pinnacle CEO Ian Macoun went further in February this year, slamming "a lot of generally uninformed, ignorant and stupid comments" about Metrics. Pinnacle owns 35 per cent of Metrics and Macoun even sold $77 million of his own Pinnacle shares last year to invest personally in Metrics funds. Macoun doubled down in August and claimed Metrics would be a beneficiary of increased regulatory scrutiny of Australian private credit because "there will be a sorting of the sheep from the goats."
Macoun is using the wrong four-legged mammals for his Metrics metaphors, given its side hustle in a steakhouse chain. There is surely a vertical integration opportunity in the vacant blocks of land in western Sydney stuck in Metrics funds: chain up some cows, backfill them into Rockpool and presto, it's a paddock to plate offering. If David Blackmore never envisaged his wagyu cattle eyeballing the M4 traffic, it's only because he lacked the imagination of a private equity work-out specialist.
Joe Aston
An unholy task
Over the last several weeks, Metrics announced two delays in the finalisation of audited 2026 accounts for its three listed investment trusts, before finally publishing those audited accounts on Friday after 5pm. While there were initially suggestions the delay was caused by internal issues at Metrics' auditor KPMG, it is now apparent the principal cause of the delay was KPMG's unholy task of unpicking Metrics' unrealistic asset valuations.
