Weekly briefs

Prudential not for sale, TPM opens door to new equity mandates, Tax write off pushes Tower's Spotlight Asia Fund unit price down

Monday, July 6th 1998, 12:00AM

Prudential says a media report suggesting the company is on the market is mischievous and untrue.
Managing director John Molloy has categorically denied that the company in Australia and New Zealand is on the market.
He says the Australasian operation was strongly supported by its United Kingdom parent company and they were fully behind the region's strategy of growth by acquisitions.
Prudential's UK Director Keith Bedell-Pearce described the sale rumours as "mischievous - particularly as quite the opposite is true".
Prudential UK invested $163 million in the acquisition of NZI Life last year which was clear evidence of their commitment to the region, Molloy says.
"The integration has gone exceedingly well and our expansion strategy remains unchanged. In the UK, the New Zealand operation is held up as an example of outstanding growth and success," he says.

TPM opens door to new mandates
Tower Portfolio Management has decided to resume accepting New Zealand equity mandates benchmarked to the NZSE40 Index.
Last year Tower stopped accepting such mandates as it believed there were liquidity problems with that index. However, it was prepared to accept New Zealand equity business benchmarked to the more liquid Russell/Ord Minnett Tradeable Index.
TPM say it has been able to reopen its doors to NZSE40 mandates as its competing passive funds have received tremendous support, easing the growth of Tower's NZ equity funds under management.
Tower currently has about $760 million invested in the New Zealand sharemarket. This reversal will potentially increase the funds under management in an illiquid NZ share market

Prudence costs
The unit price of Tower's Spotlight Asia Fund has fallen 16.5 per cent because it has written off a $400,000 deferred tax asset.
These tax losses are usually carried forward on the balance sheet as they can be used to offset future gains.
Tower Trust Service managing director Peter Fredricson says that "as (manager) Morgan Grenfell stated, it may be some months yet before the pressure currently being felt in the region subsides, and, even then, a rapid return to economic growth is difficult to predict."
"Given this scenario there was too much doubt that the market would rebound quickly and high enough to allow us to continue carrying the asset."
As a prudent step the manager had decided to fully write off the deferred tax asset, and that would appear in the July unit price.
Although the asset has been written off the tax losses can still be used to offset any future.
Unitholders joining the fund between April 1 and June 30, will receive additional units as if the deferred tax adjustment had been made at the time of their investment.

PGG Trust disappears
Pyne Gould Corporation has merged its two trustee businesses, PGG Trust and Perpetual Trust, under one name.
The merged entity, Perpetual Trust, has $5.5 billion in assets under administration.
PGC bought Perpetual Trust from AMP in October 1996.

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