Wise soapclient exception due to missing wise-core.properties

When using the org.jboss.soa.esb.actions.soap.wise.SOAPClient in an ESB action list. The following exception is thrown unless there is a wire-core.properties file in the ESB root path. This issue is only diagnosed by turning on debug logging

org.jboss.soa.esb.actions.ActionProcessingException: Error reading 'wise-core.properties'.
at org.jboss.soa.esb.actions.soap.wise.SOAPClient.createClient(SOAPClient.java:281)
at org.jboss.soa.esb.actions.soap.wise.SOAPClient.process(SOAPClient.java:238)
at org.jboss.soa.esb.listeners.message.ActionProcessingPipeline.processPipeline(ActionProcessingPipeline.java:649)
at org.jboss.soa.esb.listeners.message.ActionProcessingPipeline.processPipeline(ActionProcessingPipeline.java:603)
at org.jboss.soa.esb.listeners.message.ActionProcessingPipeline.process(ActionProcessingPipeline.java:433)
at org.jboss.soa.esb.listeners.message.MessageAwareListener$TransactionalRunner.run(MessageAwareListener.java:550)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Caused by: it.javalinux.wise.core.exceptions.WiseException: Error reading 'wise-core.properties'.
at it.javalinux.wise.core.utils.WiseProperties.<init>(WiseProperties.java:41)
at org.jboss.soa.esb.actions.soap.wise.WSDynamicClientFactory.create(WSDynamicClientFactory.java:63)
at org.jboss.soa.esb.actions.soap.wise.SOAPClient.createClient(SOAPClient.java:277)
... 8 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.util.Properties$LineReader.readLine(Properties.java:418)
at java.util.Properties.load0(Properties.java:337)
at java.util.Properties.load(Properties.java:325)
at it.javalinux.wise.core.utils.WiseProperties.<init>(WiseProperties.java:39)
... 10 more