Weekly briefs

A fund manager in drag, Aquaria 21 censured, Telstra deadline, Sorting out the players, PTO says goodbye and Kiwis poorer.

Sunday, November 15th 1998, 12:00AM

Peter Young a former fund manager with Morgan Grenfell who is facing multimillion dollar fraud charges in a London court thought he could escape the prying eyes of the press by dressing up as a woman.
No such luck though. Some sharp eyed shutterbugs weren't fooled and managed to get pictures of the former fund manager in drag.
Young is known to New Zealand investors as Tower's Spotlight Europe fund invested in one of the funds he managed.
Young has been charged with conspiracy to defraud by the British Serious Fraud Office. The charges come two years after the company dismissed him for his alleged involvement in a funds management scandal which cost Morgan Grenfell's parent company, Deutsche Bank, more than $1.35 billion.

Aquaria 21 censured
Aquarium developer Aquaria 21 has been censured by the Stock Exchange over its last-minute extension to its convertible note offer.
The company recently announced it was extending the close off date from October 30 to March 31 as the $18.75 million offer hadn't been filled.
The exchange's market surveillance panel says because the extension was made at the last-minute the company should have offered to refund applications already made. However, the company says it is undertaking to assist the sale or assignment of any affected notes on a best endeavours basis.
The panel said it, in a statement, that it "disapproves of Aquaria 21's actions and censures the company."
It is possible those who invested in the issue in the last week were disadvantaged since absence of an extension notice may have led them to assume the company was nearing its capital-raising targets, the panel said.

Telstra deadline
The deadline for final payment of Telstra instalment receipts is November 17. Investors who paid by then would be see their receipts transferred to ordinary shares on December 7.
Investors who missed the deadline would have to pay interest on the amount due and costs and penalties.
It could also result in the sale of their Telstra shares.

Sorting out the players
The total amount of funds in master trusts continued to grow in the three months to September 30, according to the Eriksen Master Trust survey.
"The total funds in master trusts continued to grow, but more slowly with the falls in returns." The survey says.
While Tower and AMP both grew strongly in the quarter a number of other funds saw little new money coming in.
"On average balanced funds outperformed growth funds over the past year, but you would have been better leaving it in 90 day bills at the bank," principal Jonathan Eriksen says.
He says the range of performance results in the quarter were wider than expected which is an indication that the tough trading conditions are sorting out the good and bad players.

Public Trust exits ISI
The Public Trust Office (PTO) has decided not to continue with its membership of the Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI).
The PTO is considered to be on the periphery of the ISI's ambit of operation as its main strengths are in the trustee and estate markets, rather than investment and savings. However, the office is expanding into managed fund and risk markets.
The Government is likely to try and sell the PTO following a recent High Court decision that confirmed that the Government owned the office's assets.

Kiwis poorer
Falling house prices have continued to erode New Zealand's net household wealth, according to the WestpacTrust/FPG household savings indicators.
The report says in the three months to June 30, net wealth fell, including housing, fell 3.3 per cent or by $8.7 billion.
WestpacTrust's chief investment office David Beattie says in the 12 months to June 30, net household wealth fell 2.9 per cent. This was the first annual decline since the March 1992 year.

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