Weekly briefs

A boost for TeNZ, Corporate bonding, Sir Ron predicts tough times ahead, Desire for compulsory savings grows & NBFS Investment Race reminder.

Sunday, March 7th 1999, 12:00AM

The soon-to-be floated energy company Contact is likely to generate a bit of positive performance for the passively managed TeNZ index fund.
Its market capitalisation of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion will make it one of the 10 biggest companies listed on the Stock Exchange so it will be included in TeNZ.
Its inclusion in the top 10 is likely to dilute some of the negative impacts of six of the other companies included in the index.
The four Fletcher Challenge letter stocks, Carter Holt Harvey and Brierley Investments, which make up 23 per cent of the index, have all posted negative returns of more than 20 per cent in the past 12 months.

The inclusion of Contact will reduce their combined weighting to about 20 per cent of the index.

Corporate bonding

The Royal & SunAlliance and Southern Cross worker's compensation insurance joint venture is to be called Fusion Insurance Services.
Fusion spokesman Nigel Edmiston says the organisation will have up to 100 staff by July 1, the date when private insurers and a new Government-owned State Owned Enterprise take over workplace accident insurance from ACC.
"No one organisation in New Zealand has the necessary skills and expertise to provide the range of services New Zealand businesses need to address workplace injury costs. The combination of three experts in their own fields under the Fusion name will be uniquely placed to provide comprehensive and co-ordinated services to improve safety, better manage injuries when they do happen and reduce insurance premiums."
The third company involved in the joint venture is case management and injury prevention consultancy GMV Associates.
Fusion will be quoting on business from April 1.

Membership of the FPA booms
Financial planning is a booming business in Australia, according to figures produced by the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA).
It says membership of the association is just below the 10,000 mark. About 3000 of it members are practitioners, and 1557 hold the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation.
The FPA expects to have 3000 CFPs by the end of the year.

Tough times ahead for Tower: Sir Ron
Guinness Peat Group chairman Sir Ron Brierley is predicting tough times ahead for Tower Corporation.
He reckons, now the proposed merger between GPG subsidiary Tyndall Australia and Tower is off, that Tower, "is now likely to struggle to survive in a fully competitive market environment."
Sir Ron made the comment last week when announcing GPG's annual profit result.
With the merger off GPG is selling it 51 per cent stake in Tyndall to Royal & SunAlliance.
Sir Ron says selling the business is the best way to crystallise its value. The sale is expected to realise a £90 million profit for GPG.

Support for a compulsory savings scheme grows
The majority of New Zealanders favour a compulsory retirement savings scheme, Investment Savings and Insurance Association chief executive Vance Arkinstall says.
He says a recent SaverPulse survey shows that the number of people favouring some form of compulsory savings scheme has grown from 47 per cent to 57 per cent in the past four quarters.
Also 87 per cent of people don't expect the Government will provide an adequate retirement income, and 29 per cent have not yet started saving.
Arkinstall says this suggests that nearly a third of the population are looking to Government to either introduce an acceptable policy that encourages savings or some form of compulsion.
"It is time to start seriously considering some of the overseas models as answers to this problem," he says.

Investment Race reminder
Contestants in the National Bank Financial Services investment race need to have their first decision completed by Friday March 12.

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