Perpetual Trust's corporate trustee business will be spun off into a standalone entity in a management buyout. It has also secured a Financial Markets Authority licence.

The new business, trading as Foundation Corporate Trust, will be owned and operated by Perpetual's staff and chaired by Perpetual's corporate trust committee chairman Sam Maling.

Foundation is wholly owned by Perpetual Trust's former risk management executive Kim von Lanthen, and is headed by former Perpetual head of corporate trust Matthew Lancaster.

Maling said the deal had been pulled together "in the past hour" and the ink was still drying on the contract.

He would not say how much had been paid for Perpetual's business but said all staff were likely to come across to the new company.

The FMA had granted Foundation a full licence to practice as a corporate trustee and all Perpetual's clients would be transferred, apart from those currently undergoing receivership or liquidation, Maling said.

Those in liquidation or receivership would be managed under the Perpetual name, but effectively by Foundation staff.

He said there were about 300 Perpetual clients who would be given a chance to decide whether to continue with Foundation over the next six months.

Perpetual had been seeking a corporate trustee licence itself, but was not among the first tranche of nine companies to receive the accreditation.

The deadline for the FMA to make a decision on remaining trustee licences is September 30.

A corporate trustee is appointed to look after investors' interests for certain investments such as those offered by credit unions, building societies and finance companies, and for unit trusts and residents of retirement villages.

The FMA has said the licences are in place to ensure applicants have the skills, experience, resources and good character to operate as trustees.

Perpetual Trust, a subsidiary of Pyne Gould Corporation, has been under investigation by the Financial Markets Authority over a $28 million related party loan.

The loan from one of Perpetual's smaller funds to the Torchlight Fund, which is 76 per cent owned by PGC managing director George Kerr, was authorised by PGC.

The High Court has confirmed that the FMA has grounds to suspect a potential breach of Perpetual's duties as trustee and a possible breach of s58 of the Securities Act.

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