Premier looks at New Zealand

A niche UK manager eyes up the New Zealand market.

Tuesday, November 21st 2000, 11:28PM

The latest British based fund manager to become interested in offering its products in New Zealand is niche operator Premier Asset Management.

Managing director Jonathan Fry has been in the country this week seeing if there is a ready market for his company's funds here.

His answer to that question, after talking to a number of key advisory firms, is yes.

He says investors would be crazy to put their money into a domestically domiciled fund because of the tax advantages available by investing in UK based funds. (The UK funds are capital gains tax free, while NZ funds have to pay tax on any gains).

"I strikes me that you would be mad to buy anything other than a UK authorised unit trust or an OEIC (open-ended investment company)," he says.

Fry says while there are opportunities in New Zealand for UK-based managers, he doesn't think any of the big guys will be interested in getting involved as the market is so small.

Premier, which has just £500 mill under management takes a resonably unique approach to the funds management business.

One of its flagship funds is the World 100 Fund which, as its name suggests, invests in the 100 biggest companies in the world

Fry describes this as being like a cross between and index fund and an actively managed one.

The fund has no index to follow and is made up of the biggest companies on a capitalisation basis.

Fry says although the largest companies are predominantly based in the United States, they have operations around the world so they provide good diversification.

Premier also provides advisers with tools to help make decisions and it is about to introduce the multi-manager approach to the UK market.

Fry say he would be interested in offering funds in New Zealand if he could get about $100 million in funds under management over three or four years.

Premier's funds are not yet available New Zealand as its prospectus has yet to registered with the Securities Commission.

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