Stock Guru, Craigs hits Chch, Urbus bulks up

Thursday, February 5th 2004, 6:50AM

We’re doing things a little bit backwards this week. Instead of having the News Round Up on Monday we are running it today ahead of Waitangi Day.

Stock Guru
Have you entered?

Good Returns’ sister site ShareChat is running its new sharemarket game Stock Guru.

The game is simple and you can win $250 worth of books from the Good Returns bookstore.

You have until Saturday to pick the five stocks from the NZX main board and NZAX which you think will provide the best gains in the next month.

The stocks will be equally weighted in a portfolio. At the end of the game period the portfolio which shows the biggest gross gain is declared the winner.

WIN
The winner of the first game will get $250 worth of books of their choice from the Good Returns bookshop. The bookshop has more than 150 books covering the personal investment area including a wide range of sharemarket books.

We plan to run 11 games over 2004 and winners will be given points based on their rank at the end of each game. The person with the most points at the end of the series of games will be the 2004 Stock Guru.

Remember it’s free to enter and there are prizes to be won. Entries for Game One must be in by Saturday February 7, 5pm. No exceptions.

Full details, terms and conditions and rules are displayed on the game page at http://game.sharechat.co.nz

ABN Amro Craigs hits Christchurch
ABN AMRO Craigs now has an office in Chrsitchurch after finalising its purchase of sharebroking and investment advisory firm Lawrence Millton & Howarth.

The company now has 13 branches around New Zealand and more than 95 client advisers and a total staff of 200.

Lawrence Millton & Howarth says that it will now be able to offer its clients “enhanced services and investment opportunities from an organisation with the financial strength and client focus of ABN AMRO Craigs.

Arrow Life still in its quiver
New life company Arrow didn’t quite get off the ground earlier this week when applications closed, however the organisers reckon it’s still a goer. [MORE]

AIA AAA aye
Americian International Assurance (AIA) has had its AAA rating from Standard and Poors reaffirmed.

AIA is the only triple A rated life company in New Zealand.

"The renewal of the AAA rating reaffirms AIA New Zealand's financial strength in a very competitive market, AIA general manager Bernard McCrea says.

"The AAA rating is an important part of AIA New Zealand's brand - it signifies strength, security and stability, an extremely important facet of any advisers business."

Urbus grows
Urbus has acquired two bulk retail properties from Pacific Retail Group in an "off market" transaction.

This builds on an existing relationship between the two companies whereby Urbus leases space to Pacific Retail Group in several other properties owned by Urbus within its portfolio of 56 properties.

Both properties are currently under development and are due to be completed at the end of February. One property is located within the Wairau Park bulk retail area, and the other is located in the centre of Papakura opposite the Countdown supermarket.

Bulk retail was the top performing property sector in the recently released Property Council property performance survey for the year ending September 2003.

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