News Round Up

Buy the US market without the risk, Winner announced, Commission stops momentum, AXA sharpens its focus, GEAA gets even better

Monday, October 2nd 2000, 7:24AM

The Bank of New Zealand has taken away some of the risks of investing in the United States sharemarket with its new Capital Protected Index Investment (CPII).

The CPII offers access to the US market by tracking the S&P 5000 Index, while maintaining a 100% guarantee on capital.

On top of this there is full foreign exchange hedging to protect from exchange rate volatility.

The CPII is a two year investment and is only available until November 10.

Winner announcement

This year's fund manager of the year will be unveiled on October 20.

IPAC Securities general manager David van Schaardenburg says the criteria used to find an overall winner ,plus individual sector winners has changed from last year (for full details of how the winners are found visit the IPAC Fund Manager of the Year Page).

One of the defining characteristics of the awards is that the judging process is applied to all funds management companies that have NZ domiciled retail investment funds.

Selection of the Fund Manager of the Year is derived from a performance based process that aims to fairly represent the achievement of each fund manager on behalf of their clients.

AMP Asset Management won the last year's overall award.

Securities Commission stops some momentum
The Securities Commission has prohibited advertising for the offer of shares in Inertialess Drive Corporation based in Tauranga because the firm's advertising does not comply with the law.

In particular the company does not have a current registered prospectus.

The commission has also banned the advertising for shares in Inertialess Drive Incorporation USA because it has no investment statement or registered prospectus.

The offer has been promoted in a document called a prospectus. However, it is not a registered prospectus, and does not provide the legally required information.

Commission senior executive Norman Miller says this is the second time the commission has banned advertising from this company because of a lack of a prospectus. The first time was in 1998.

Miller has warned people to "think carefully before acquiring shares in these companies."

He says Michael Kenneth Pedlar of Tauranga is associated with both companies.

AXA sharpens it focus
As part of its drive to focus on investment and insurance activities AXA New Zealand has negotiated the sale of its three lending businesses, HLNZ, Freedom Financial Services and its funds management lending division.

More details of the sales are expected to be announced soon.

Macquarie's GEAA gets even better
Macquarie's popular cash management trust, the Gilt Edge Access Account (GEAA), is looking more and more like a regular bank savings account.

The latest feature to be added to the GEAA is a facility to allow direct debits that allows users to make regular payments.

Direct debits are expected to be available by late October/early November.

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