News Round Up

Monday, February 13th 2006, 6:54AM

St Laurence has moved to compulsorily acquire all the shares in the company made up of eight former stand-alone syndicated.

St Laurence Property & Finance holds 93.61% of the company and plans to mop up the outstanding shares as it is entitled to do under the takeovers rules.

It will pay 89 cent for each share. “The price has been certified as fair and reasonable by Deloitte Corporate Finance, being above the upper range of its share valuation of 76c to 88c per share.”

The company expects the compulsory acquisition to be completed before March 31. St Laurence Properties currently owns 13 individual properties with a combined net market value of $104.7 million. The portfolio comprises predominantly industrial and office properties located in Auckland, with a weighted average lease term of around 4.2 years and annual net rent of $9.56m.

Money Managers' top adviser

Pukekohe Money Managers franchise owner Jonathan Davies has won the company’s Investment Adviser of the Year and Office of the Year.

His office also took the growth category after winning the developing growth category for each of the previous three years.

Other finalists for Investment Adviser of the Year were two-times winner, Rae Fairest (Whakatane), Rob Blackmore (Nelson), Bob Niemiec (Hamilton), and Mike Jones (Manukau).

The Money Managers' Investment Adviser of the Year award is based on an annual quality service review of 34 performance measures covering provision of investment advice.

Stand-in boss at Dorchester
Listed financial services group Dorchester Pacific has appointed Mark Simpson as its interim chief executive, to replace Brent King who resigned in December.

Dorchester Pacific said Simpson would take on the role while the company looks to appoint a permanent chief executive. He has been the company secretary for five years.

King will finish up on February 28, after 17 years heading up the company.

Australian economy looking ok
The Pengana Emerging Companies Fund posted a return of 3.8% (after mgmt fees) over the December quarter, compared with the benchmark performance of 0.6%. Since inception in November 2004, the fund has returned 33.5% outperforming the smallcap benchmark by 11.0%.

The fund now has more than A$45 million invested.

Its managers, in their latest review, “remain confident that medium term money making ideas remain plentiful given the strong economy and healthy balance sheets backed by fair valuations and solid dividend yields.

Housing market up, but cooling
Latest stats show that house prices have continued to rise, but signs of a slowdown are emerging.

House price inflation is continuing to accelerate despite the Reserve Bank raising interest rates and widespread expectations that it should be abating, according to the latest Quotable Value figures.

Average annual growth in house prices nationally was 16.8%, up from 15.8% in December. Apart from a small blip in October, the QV figures have shown a steady acceleration in annual house price inflation since the 12.1% increase recorded in March last year. [MORE]

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Sovereign takes regulation bull by the horns »

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