News Round Up

Good Returns' makeover, Ombudsman can't help investors, NPT disappointed at discount and Tower goes to cou.

Sunday, August 13th 2000, 12:00AM

Good Returns is going through a makeover and will soon be launching a revamped site which has more features, improved functionality, plus all the latest news from the personal investment world.

NPT disappointed with discount
The National Property Trust is disappointed its units continue to trade at a significant discount on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, despite the fund performing relatively well.

"The volatility in the sharemarket over this period is attributed to the perception that the sector is overvalued and that a downward correction was inevitable," executive chairman Paul Dallimore says.

He says this perception has become reality largely due to the requirements that buildings must be revalued for reporting purposes on a "willing buyer, willing seller" basis.

"Each year property companies and trusts in the listed public arena are exposed to the inevitable volatility of arbitrary timing of revaluations when they are not sellers of their investment property assets as they are long term portfolio investors. This volatility erodes or inflates the revaluation reserve but this accounting effect is not crystallised in any way."

The trust bought two buildings in the past year, and has set aside up to 10% of its assets as development funds. Also during the year NPT maintained existing tenancies and, through a successful lease renewal programme, managed to keep its rental revenue stable.

The fund has a 2% vacancy rate in its commercial office space.

Ombudsman can't help

Investors wanting to switch out of the MFL Mutual Fund into another registered superannuation fund have had little help from the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman.

The couple wants to switch from the MFL fund into a fund run by a different firm, but the MFL trustees are saying they can't do that because the other fund isn't a proper super fund.

The ombudsman's office says it can't help because although the MFL's manager, Armstrong Jones, is a member of the ombudsman's scheme, the trustee is not.

"It is the ombudsman's view that the trustee, rather than Armstrong Jones, is the party which, in terms of the terms of reference is providing the services," the office says.

Tower taken to court
Trans-Tasman financial services group Tower has been taken to court by the former head of its Australian asset management business after a major company restructure saw him leave the company earlier this year, the Australian Financial Review reports.

The former chief executive of Tower Asset Management, Derek Goodyer, has filed a claim in the Federal Court, alleging he was wrongfully dismissed under a contract signed in 1994 and that his employers engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct.

Goodyer left the company in April, three months after four senior members of its equity fund management team defected to a rival fund manager.

The managing director of Tower Group, James Boonzaier, is named in the claim. Tower Services Pty Ltd and Tower Corporation Holdings are also defendants.

Boonzaier says the company would vigorously defend the case and believed it was "groundless"

« Mortgage rates remain static for another month

Get your tax questions answered online »

Special Offers