It has been a long term goal of mine to be able to go out to investors and say “invest with us”. Not “invest in us” or even “invest with me” – invest with us.
GPS is a highly regulated business which requires us to be able to back up whatever we say. Now that my family investment company has made the top 10 of the investor’s list and our operating company (GPS Development Finance Pty Ltd), directors, members of our credit committee, many staff, former staff and other family members are all investors with GPS, we believe we are now able to make this assertion.
Compliance note: most of these investments are via investment entities such as self-managed super funds, investment companies or related parties.
This is not about having a snappy by-line for marketing, or me putting my lawyer hat on and being pedantic. It is all about imbedding a strong culture within GPS, where we act in the best interests of investors, because we are investors and have confidence in our product.
There is a lot of talk at the present time about the culture, or absence of it, within the banks.
In 1997 the Managed Investments Act was enacted for operators like GPS. It requires us to put the interests of investors ahead of our own (banks are yet to get this one), treat all investors of a particular class equally, and those of different classes fairly etc. I believe that GPS is now 20 years ahead of the banks from a cultural perspective and still counting.
The culture of “invest with us” is now firmly embedded throughout all facets of the GPS business. I hope this makes our investors even more comfortable with us.
Richard Woodhead – Managing Director
