Weekly briefs

New owner for BT this week, What's on Armstrong Jones' drawing board, Colonial shortfall, Public fee backlash, Events this week.

Sunday, May 30th 1999, 12:00AM

The hot favourites to acquire BT Funds Management currently are Bank of New Zealand's parent company, National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac.
Final bids for BT had to be handed in to Deutsche Bank's adviser Goldman Sachs by Saturday.
It is expected BT will sell for more than A$2 billion. An announcement on the new owner may be as early as this week as Deutsche Bank formally takes ownership of Bankers Trust on Friday June 4.
While NAB and Westpac are being fingered as the most likely buyer the other Australian banks, plus Lend Lease and US company Principal Financial Services are in the running.

Principal has been eyeing up the Australian market for some time now, and a successful bid for BT would provide and ideal beachhead into the market.
Principal is based in Des Moines, Iowa and is a major player in the US market. It is the eighth largest life insurer and largest manager of 401(k) savings plans. It generated total revenues of US$7.7 billion in 1997 and reported a net profit of US$693 million. In size it is similar to AMP.

What's on AJ's drawing board
Armstrong Jones is expecting to roll out its range of branded insurance products in the next month or so.
As reported earlier Armstrong Jones is moving from being a fund manager to a financial services company and is planning to distribute branded insurance products alongside its managed funds.
Its range of risk products will include term life, trauma, disability income type polices, general manager Paul Fyfe says the company will not offer whole of life or endowment policies.
He says the contracts will come from a company with an AAA rating. Speculation is that AIA will be providing AJ with product.
AJ is also planning to launch a cash management trust and a wholesale master fund later this year.

Colonial shortfall
Colonial is likely to end up with a bigger stake in its $200 listed property trust than expected, after it closed undersubscribed last week.
Colonial First State was seeking to raise $100 million from the public for its diversified property trust, however it is understood the offer closed more than 10 per cent undersubscribed.
Full details of the shortfall are likely to be known later today.
The trust is due to list on June 3.

Public backlash against bank fees
A public backlash against bank fees has been a boon for the tiny Taranaki-based TSB Bank managing director and chief executive Kevin Rimmington says.
The bank announced, last week, a record pre-tax profit of $16.7 million for the year ending March 31.
Rimmington says bank's no fees policy for cheque and savings accounts has been instrumental in helping TSB double its customer base in 12 months and boosting its profits by an additional $3.5 million.

Events this week:
Good Returns will be launching its comprehensive table of mortgage rates later this week. The table will compare current rates amongst providers, plus it will detail fee levels and security requirements.

Applications for units in Calan Healthcare Properties Trust close on Monday May 31, at 5pm. See earlier story

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