Crocus Investment Fund, the troubled Manitoba-based labour investment fund, won’t resume trading and will instead look at other ways to recoup money for its 33,000 investors, the fund’s board of directors said Monday.

“In our view, damage to the fund’s reputation, the high net operating costs (run rate), poor investment performance, the threat of litigation, and other factors make it irresponsible for the board to ask Manitobans to invest in the fund at this time,” said Van Hall, chairman of the board of Crocus.

“We have concluded that the financial interests of shareholders is best served by working with any and all interested parties to dispose of the assets in the portfolio in a manner that realizes maximum value for shareholders. This is a complicated process and the realized value for shareholders will only be known when the process is complete. In the interim, the Board can make no representation about the realizable value of the portfolio and the corresponding price per share. Accordingly, it is important for shareholders to know that the estimated price of approximately $7 per share is not certain at this time,” Hall said.

Options for the board include selling off the fund’s assets or merging the fund with other LSIFs. The fund has received expressions of interest from a number of parties including Ensis Management, the company that operates the Ensis Growth Fund in Manitoba, Winnipeg-based Jovian Capital, and GrowthWorks Capital, a management company from British Columbia that manages a number of Canadian Labour Sponsored Investment Funds.

Crocus, set up by the Manitoba government in the early 1990s, suspended trading last December amid concerns over its true value.

The fund and 10 former directors are facing allegations in front of the Manitoba Securities Commission related to share pricing. As well, the province’s auditor general criticized the fund in a report this spring.

Crocus declared a $46-million writedown earlier this year. Shares that were valued at more than $10 in December were estimated at approximately $7 following the writedown. Hall said even that level is far from guaranteed.

Hall and other new board members, who were appointed following the resignations of the previous board, have hired the financial consultant firm Deloitte and Touche to help determine the best way to recoup shareholder money.