Milford Asset Management portfolio manager Mark Warminger was "unlikely" to get a positive performance review because of the seriousness of the Financial Markets Authority inquiry into his suspected market manipulation, said the firm's head of investments Brian Gaynor. Gaynor said he thought salaries at Milford in 2014 were below the market but it offered a bonus based on the overall performance of the company adjusted for individual performance. He said management had other concerns about Warminger including his "mood not being as positive as it had been". Warminger ended up being given a negative performance review after the FMA launched its inquiry and Gaynor said there was no way he wouldn't because "otherwise we would not have been seen as taking the FMA investigation seriously". In yesterday's trading, for example, there was $127m of trades of which 68 per cent were done off market, he said.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 12, 2016 00:56 UTC