News Round Up
Revised outlook for TOWER, AXA Leaders Forum, The end of an era, Fat Prophets floats, Fisher Funds changes mandate, Morningstar now listed.
Monday, May 9th 2005, 6:00AM
Standard & Poor's has revised the outlook on TOWER from stable to positive and affirmed its BB+credit ratings.
“The ratings on the group of core operating and holding companies owned by TOWER reflect the group’s strong capitalisation, strong business profile in New Zealand life and non-life insurance market, and its satisfactory business profile in the larger Australian life insurance market,” S&P says.
Moderating features include the group’s improved, but modest, operating performance and the competitive and difficult market conditions, particularly in New Zealand.
Other rating news: S&P assigns rating to Geneva Finance
Other TOWER news: TOWER appoints new head of investments
AXA Leaders Forum
This year’s Budget, due to be delivered on May 19, is expected to contain significant announcements for New Zealand’s investment and savings industry.
AXA is planning to hold a post-Budget briefing looking at what these changes will mean for the financial planning profession and investors. More details HERE.
The end of an era
Interests associated with the Hodge family say that they intend to accept the offer from ING Property Trust for their entire share and note holdings of approximately 5,800,000 securities in Urbus Properties.
Urbus is the listed entity of the former Waltus group of companies.
"Having been involved in the development of this company, and its genesis nearly 20 years ago, we have taken a very considered approach about this decision," Shayne Hodge says.
He says that the growth and consolidation of the listed property market demands that listed entities have the size and scale to compete for assets and tenants.
"Merging the interests of Urbus and ING should result in substantial benefits by providing reduced costs from the combination of corporate functions and lower cost of debt funding."
Fat Prophets floats
The Fat Prophets Fat Fund investment fund IPO closed recently after raising A$32.18 million in an IPO in Australia and New Zealand.
The Fat Fund investment portfolio will be managed by Fat Prophets Funds Management Australia Pty Limited.
"We have attracted a broad spread of shareholders in both Australia and New Zealand, despite the market’s negativity towards LIC’s at the moment," chief executive David Shearwood says.
“We expect to be fully invested within six months in stocks we identify through our own proprietary research as well ideas generated by the Fat Prophets reports."
Fisher Funds changes mandate
Fisher Funds NZ Growth Fund is moving away from its traditional mandate of investing in small and mid-cap NZX listed companies.
Investors have been told to cash in their units before then if they do not agree with the changes.
Morningstar now listed
US-based research house Morningstar is now listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange following an IPO last week.
Major shareholder Softbank has sold 7.6 million shares at US$18.50 each in the IPO. At its closing price of US$21.60 on Friday the company has a market capitalisation of around US$830.46 million.
Property NewsASB survey: Housing confidence still high
Next story: House prices accelerated in April
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