News Round Up

Kingfish NAV hits record high, NZ shares not all doom and gloom, New fixed interest trading platform, Dominion to raise $40 mill, PRG sales finalised, New bid for Pero.

Monday, January 30th 2006, 6:52AM

Listed investment company Kingfish has reported its highest ever net asset value. It says the NAV increased 2.8% in the December quarter and reached $1.35.

“The result was pleasing given the challenging market conditions as investors became increasingly nervous about the prospect of a deteriorating New Zealand economy,” Kingfish chairman, Rob Challinor said.

Challinor reiterated the view that the current discount Kingfish shares are trading at is “excessive”.

Not all doom and gloom

Fisher Funds managing director Carmel Fisher says that while the sharemarket will be challenging this year, not all companies suffer equally in an economic downturn.

“We have often been pleasantly surprised at our companies’ resilience in the face of adversity. We are confident that the Kingfish portfolio companies are well placed to deliver positive gains over the coming year.”

She says that life gets harder for companies in an environment of rising interest rates and a slowing domestic economy, however it is “entirely possible that some companies will exceed analysts’ expectations of profit growth; some companies will be little affected by the New Zealand economy and will achieve profit growth through their international sales.”

“Corporate activity may lead to unusual share price gains; and the strength of the international share markets may provide some underlying support for the New Zealand market.”

New fixed interest trading platform
ASB Bank owned wrap account provider Aegis has reached the $3 billion mark in funds under administration.

Aegis general manager Paul Baldwin says funds under administration grew by $400 million in the past year, “a level of growth that Aegis has averaged over the last seven years”.

He says that half the assets are in managed funds and the other half are directly held investments such as shares and fixed interest.

“As Aegis does not dictate where funds are invested, this mix is an absolute reflection of the investment preferences of advisers and their clients.”

Aegis has also created a specialist fixed interest trading facility to help advisers manage bonds and term deposits and it has developed a wholesale trading system for these assets.

Capital note offer from Dominion
Dominion Finance is looking at making a $40 million capital note offer with the proceeds being used to fund its purchase of North South Finance.

The specific terms of the notes, including their term and coupon have yet to be disclosed.

NZ Finance to launch new Mike Pero bid
New Zealand Finance Holdings (NZF) has said it intends to launch another takeover offer for Mike Pero Mortgages, despite picking up just 1% through an earlier bid that ended this month. [MORE]

Sale of Pacific Retail Finance goes unconditional
Pacific Retail Group (PRG) says the sale of its finance group to GE Finance and Insurance had gone unconditional.

All the regulatory and shareholder approvals have been granted and the deal is due to settle on January 31.

PRG agreed to sell the Finance Group to GE in November last year for $145 million, and said it would book a $75 million profit from the deal.

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