Two in a row for Tower

Tower has won the FundSource Fund Manager of the Year award for the second year running and Hildyard, as chief executive of Tower Investments, says he believes one of the reasons for the performance is the way investment decisions are made.

Friday, October 28th 2005, 6:26AM

by Rob Hosking

"Our team are all independently responsible for their own areas – we don’t have a committee trying to second guess them.

"That probably makes us more vulnerable to our superstars, in a way, but then that’s what we’re selling.

"If someone’s got a key view he makes the decision on it and lives and dies by that decision."

That approach could be seen as divisive but in fact Hildyard says it has been the opposite.

The stability of the team at Tower was commented on by FundSource. It cited Tower’s approach as combining “fundamental research with disciplined risk controls. These are applied within a consistent and logical framework that ensures accountability for results while maintaining an impressive record of personnel stability.”

Runner up was ING, and second runner up was the National Bank (now ING-owned).

Hildyard says that Tower has also put a great deal of emphasis on long term investments and avoiding the short-term sentiment-driven activity.

At the moment though – although broadly optimistic – he says there is a tough search for value in the market.

“We’re finding it incredibly hard to find value, both here and internationally.

“It’s probably the hardest we’ve seen for 15 years. There’s so much liquidity, people are pretty confident and are just chasing returns and have taken a lot of the risk premium out.”

Rob Hosking is a Wellington-based freelance writer specialising in political, economic and IT related issues.

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