NZIT and Coronet part company
Exeter Asset Management has replaced Coronet Asset Management as advisers to the New Zealand Investment Trust.
Monday, February 28th 2000, 12:00AM
In its place it has appointed BT Funds Management and Fisher Funds Management as advisers.
The NZIT, which is managed by Scottish-based Exeter Asset Management, used Coronet to advise it on which Australasian stocks to buy. The actual transactions and portfolio management were handled by Exeter.
NZIT chairman Don Campbell says the company is still recovering from a disastrous year in 1998.
In the first nine years, up to October 31, 1997 the fund achieved a total investment return of 162 per cent, however the following year's losses erased much of that gain.
Those losses were exacerbated by the trust losing its capital-gains free tax status for 12 months due to a portfolio management error.
In the past year there has been some recovery but the fund's performance has been unsatisfactory, Campbell says.
The NZIT modestly outperformed the NZSE40, but its performance against other indices has been poor.
Because the fund's mandate includes smaller companies and Australian companies it is appropriate to measure it against the NZ Smaller Companies Index, which rose 37 per cent and the Australian All Ords, which was up 16.7 per cent in NZ dollar terms.
"In the ensuring months we have made little progress, and our net asset value has increased only 3.9 per cent since October 31, 1999, and our shares are trading at discounts of 14.5 per cent and 10.6 per cent to net asset value in London and New Zealand markets respectively," Campbell says.
Under the new arrangement Fisher Funds Management (FFM) will advise on smaller companies and will be responsible for about a quarter of the portfolio, while BT will advise on the remainder, concentrating on the larger New Zealand stocks and Australian countries.
This is the third time Exeter has changed the fund's adviser. Prior to Coronet it used Colonial in New Zealand to provide share recommendations.
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