Weekly briefs

Kiwis scammed, Syndicate sells, More money goes offshore, Perpetual profits, This week's big events

Sunday, October 3rd 1999, 12:00AM

New Zealanders have lost tens of millions of dollars in the past 12 months to dubious investment schemes, Securities Commission chief executive John Farrell says.

Farrell says there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people committing to dubious schemes.

The commission has just released a paper on investor behaviour that identifies three scams that are becoming prevalent.

Among them are the approaches by telephone to buy shares in overseas companies at inflated prices, offers to invest in overseas companies which return more than 10 per cent and scam artists pretending to be promoting securities in New Zealand.

Farrell says the paper is aimed at encouraging people to make sensible investment decisions. He says people should think carefully before investing and they should "check with reputable financial advisers" before doing so.

Syndicate sells
The manager of the Broadway Property fund has called a meeting of unitholders to consider whether the fund's building should be sold and the trust wound up.

St Laurence subsidiary Cascara Group, as manager, has conditionally sold the building at

309 Broadway in Newmarket to the adjoining property owner for $12.8 million. The sale is conditional on unitholder approval.

The property was originally bought by the fund for $8.1 million in June 994. If the sale proceeds investors will have realised a 21 per cent annual return on their total investment, St Laurence managing director Kevin Podmore says.

More money goes offshore
New Zealanders are becoming larger investors offshore, and that the returns they are receiving on those investments are better than previously thought.

"At the end of March this year, New Zealanders had a total of $40.3 billion invested abroad. This is an increase of over $5.5 billion from a year earlier," Treasurer Bill English says.

"The balance of payments data released last week also showed that New Zealand investors have been getting a better return on their overseas investments than we had previously thought," he says.

Perpetual profits
Pyne Gould Corporation, which owns Perpetual Trust, says asset sales helped it reported a record $19.66 million for the year to June 31.

The group, which is involved in financial services and the rural sector, booked one-off gains from the sale of its South Eastern Utilities electricity assets and Allied Finance's investment in BMW Finance.

Perpetual Trust achieved a 22 per cent increase in after tax profit. This result was due to the growth in managed funds and corporate trust activity, together with the consolidation of PGG Trust and Perpetual Trust.

This week's big events
Monday: Winner of the National Bank Investment Race due to be announced. Click here to find out who won
Tuesday: WestpacTrust Investments public offer closes at 5pm
New Zealand Rural Property Trust special meeting, 11am, Wellington
Wednesday: Financial Planner of the Year Awards presentation, Sheraton Hotel Auckland starting at 6.30pm. For more details click here
US Federal Reserve open market committee meeting (Wed NZ time)
Saturday: WestpacTrust Investments offer price expected to be set.