Media Release from Perpetual Trust Limited

Perpetual Trust places Lombard Finance into receivership

10 April 2008

Lombard Group’s wholly-owned subsidiary Lombard Finance & Investments Limited (Lombard Finance) has today been placed into receivership by its trustee, Perpetual Trust.

PricewaterhouseCoopers partners John Fisk and John Waller have been appointed Receivers of the company.

On 3 April, Lombard Finance announced to investors it would be seeking a moratorium in respect of its repayment obligations to debenture and note holders.

Perpetual Trust chief executive Louise Edwards says, “We have reviewed the proposed moratorium and believe that, because of the company’s position it is in the best interests of investors for the company to be placed into receivership.”

“A detailed review of the company by Perpetual Trust with independent advice determined there was no compelling reason for a moratorium to proceed, and that the interests of investors will be better served by appointing receivers to independently address the issues the company has.”

All payments of principal and interest to debenture holders and note holders have been suspended with repayment to be announced by the receivers in due course.

The receivers will prepare and send investors a report on their initial findings as soon as possible.

Information supplied by the company indicates that Lombard Finance has $127 million of debenture stock and notes on behalf of approximately 4,400 investors, and had a loan book comprising a total of approximately $137 million.

The receivership also applies to three other subsidiaries of Lombard Group, being Lombard Asset Finance Limited, Lombard Property Holdings Limited and Lombard Asset Finance No 2 Limited. The receivership does not impact on Lombard Group Limited.

A dedicated page on the PricewaterhouseCoopers website has been set up at www.pwc.com/nz/lombard and this will continue to be updated. In addition, a dedicated phone line (phone 04 462 7557) has also been established for any investors or creditors who have an enquiry relating to Lombard.