News Round Up

Hotchin sees red, Money Managers sees Orange. Tarawera Publishing a winner, I-Cap to close private equity fund.

Monday, September 29th 2003, 2:02AM

Hanover Group executive chairman Mark Hotchin is highly critical of the two new board appointments made by Tower.

He says Hanover, which owns just under 10% of the company has made several formal requests to the Tower board for board representation, however Tower chairman Olaf O’Duill is reported as saying no approaches have been made.

“We have written to the board on many occasions and, twice, specifically regarding board representation. We have even written letters to them asking them to respond to earlier correspondence, which they have not done. So for Mr O’Duill to be reported as saying this week that we have never contacted him is very concerning,” Hotchin says.

He is also highly critical of the appointments as he claims they make it clear that GPG is running the company.

“We and most of the market have said all along that GPG were controlling the company and that ordinary shareholders were not being fairly treated,” he says.

“For Mr O’Duill to say that he has a concern about Hanover’s obvious opposition to whatever GPG is doing, as an apparent justification to refusing to consider board representation, indicates that Mr O’Duill is firmly in the GPG camp when as chairman he should be taking a position independent of any single shareholding group.”

Find out more about the appointments here

Attractive orange
Money Managers says its new finance company has raised $2.5 million in its first two weeks of operation.

It says that monthly interest and flexible maturity dates are attractive to investors.

"Getting monthly income from an investment and being able to choose your own maturity dates are obviously important factors for people," marketing director Alasdair Scott says.

The company launched its investment statement about two weeks ago.

Use the calculator at www.depositrates.co.nz to find the latest interest rates companies are offering for deposits.

Top business Award
Tarawera Publishing Ltd, the company which produces Good Returns was honoured at the annual Rotorua Business Awards on Friday night.

The company won the Media, Information Technology and Communications Business Award.

Tarawera Publishing also produces sharemarket and business website www.sharechat.co.nz, and the print magazines, ASSET, The NZ Mortgage Mag, The NZ Property Mag, and it publishes Adviser magazine on behalf of the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association.

I-Cap planning to close fund
The I-Cap IEP private equity fund, which was opened in 2000, is scheduled to close to new investment on October 31.

The fund, which has a three year track record, is one of the only private equity funds available to retail investors in New Zealand.

It is due to be wound up in 2008. This means investors are likely to receive the private equity returns after five years rather than the more normal 7-10 year time frame for these sorts of funds.

The decision to close the fund was made as the value of the underlying investments were starting to increase following injection of capital and management expertise from the I-Cap team. Additionally, a number of the investments are potentially approaching the stage where they might be realised in the near future.

Leaving the fund open indefinitely has the effect of diluting the return to existing investors.

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