Weekly briefs

Tower demutualisation latest, Joseph Banks weighs anchor, managed funds number one, the pension 100 years on and the call you don't want in the middle of the night. er

Sunday, November 8th 1998, 12:00AM

Tower Corporation's demutualisation plans are back on again. The company says it will be presenting its demutualisation proposal to the High Court in Wellington for approval of December 7.
The hearing was originally scheduled for October 19, however the Court of Appeal temporarily stayed proceedings due to issues related to Tower's unwanted suitor Guinness Peat Group.
Members and creditors are entitled to attend the hearing.
Tower says should the scheme be given provisional approval, all its members will be sent an information memorandum containing full details of the proposal.

Joseph Banks weighs anchor
Colonial has made a number of changes to its managed fund product line-up including dropping the Joseph Banks brand name.
Joseph Banks funds now come under the Colonial First State Investment name, along with the funds Prudential used to offer.
Colonial is rationalising its product range as it integrates the Prudential funds into its line up. As part of this move all the New Zealand-only products will disappear.
Other moves include:

Doing away with unit certificates (Investors will have PIN numbers instead)
Reducing the management fee on the cash management fund from 0.8 per cent to 0.5 per cent
Introducing a dollar cost averaging facility through its cash management trust.

Managed funds number one
Managed funds are number one in the eye of investors when it comes to providing best returns, ASB Bank's latest quarterly investor confidence survey says.
It says 18 per cent of respondents thought managed funds gave the best returns. In the previous survey managed funds shared first place with residential rental property.
In the latest survey term deposits moved up three per cent to second place and residential investment property slipped to third.

Blair calls for stability
New Zealand, last week, celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the state pension. This, according to Retirement Commissioner Colin Blair, is an appropriate time for the country to reflect on the increasing need for greater certainty of retirement income policy.
He says the ever-changing policy on superannuation has created a sense of instability and uncertainty among the New Zealand public.
Policy stability requires a multi-party agreement, and more importantly public acceptance that proposed policies are viable, equitable and sustainable, he says.
"The 100 year anniversary (November 2) of an ever-changing state pension presents an excellent opportunity to focus on how the nation can create certainty about the future," Blair says.

A call in the night you don't want
A scam out of the Philippines is still going strong, according to New Plymouth-based adviser Peter Hensley.
He says Taranaki people are being woken up in the middle of the night by sophisticated telephone sales operators offering "incredible" share purchases.
Reputable business people are being approached and offered great "inside share information". However, the stories are false, as are the prices offered to people.
Hensley says several local people have been approached and they say the callers are very believable.

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