South Canterbury Finance is warning investors to seek professional advice before accepting any cut-rate offers on their securities.

The beleaguered finance company says it’s been approached by the holders of one tranche of bonds for access to register information.

The company says this move usually foreshadows an offer to buy investors out at a price well below market value, and is urging shareholders not to get caught out.

“We’re very wary about this because we’ve got relationships with investors and we want to protect them if possible.

"If people want to sell or avail themselves of liquidity then that’s fine, but some of these offers are not very transparent around the price, and so people end up, probably having lost some money anyway, losing more, and that concerns us.”

South Canterbury has supplied the requested information, and informed the Securities Commission of its action.