News Round Up

Deadline for submissions extended, More good news for unitholders, RaboPlus expands already, Hanover to sponsor awards, Record number of CFA enrolments,

Monday, April 10th 2006, 6:00AM

The closing date for submissions on the proposed regulations under the Securities Legislation Bill has been extended to May 5. The deadline is not April 21 as reported elsewhere last week.

A discussion document on the bill has been released in the past couple of weeks. This covers a number of areas including investment advisers and brokers disclosure.

Currently the Bill is currently awaiting the Committee of the Whole stage of the legislative process. Cabinet has agreed to a Supplementary Order Paper and it is anticipated that it will be tabled at the Committee of the Whole stage of the Bill. It is also anticipated that the Bill could go through its final legislative stages in the next couple of months.

More good news for unitholders

Following on from our story about ING New Zealand shares manager Amanda Smith having her best day ever as a manager we have some feedback from another manager.

Shane Solly, who recently left ING and joined Goldman Sachs JB Were says the trans-Tasman trust he now manages produced a 9.6% after tax and fees return for the March quarter.

“March was an absolute ripper,” he says. “The potent mix of merger and acquisition activity and ongoing solid earnings boosted equity market returns. Capital being reinvested from M&A activity…into the tight New Zealand market produced strong upwards pressure. New Zealand investors with exposure to Australian stocks benefited from a strong end of quarter run in the Australian market driven by positive resource stock performance and merger and acquisition activity.”

He says the medium term outlook for New Zealand and Australian equities remains positive. However Solly cautions investors about chasing potential takeover targets. “In some cases potential takeovers are already reflected in target share prices. In others the time frame before eventual transactions occur may be some way out.”

RaboPlus expands already
RaboPlus has extended its account offerings to include trusts as well as personal customers.

“The decision to expand RaboPlus’ online account products to trusts follows the successful launch of online services for personal customers last month,” RaboPlus general manager Mike Heath says.

He says deposits into RaboPlus are already more than $100m. “We’ve exceeded our targets for customer numbers and deposits and are excited about including trusts in our customer base,” Heath says.

Family, community and sporting trusts will be able to open and operate high interest, no fee on-call savings accounts.

RaboPlus is not available to Public Unit Trusts or financial institutions and the trusts must be New Zealand based.

Hanover to sponsor awards
Hanover Group will sponsor the new Mergers and Acquisitions House of the Year Award at the INFINZ Industry Awards in April this year.

The Institute of Finance Professionals is the industry body for professionals working in the finance and capital markets of New Zealand and the awards are regarded as the premium acknowledgment in the industry.

Hanover Group chairman Greg Muir said the awards provide an opportunity to recognise excellence amongst the finance professionals in New Zealand.

The awards will be presented at a black tie dinner held at Wellington’s Old Town Hall on Thursday, April 27.

Record number of CFA enrolments
The CFA Institute says it has a record number of enrolments for its December 2005 and June 2006 Chartered Financial Analyst exams. It says there are 116,190 enrolments from 163 countries.

“Employers, clients, and investors see value in the CFA designation because it’s a rigorous program, rooted in practice, not just theory,” the institute says.

CFA Institute recommends that to be successful, a candidate should study a minimum of 750 hours for the three examination levels. On average, candidates take about four years to complete the program and earn the coveted CFA charter. Candidates must also complete at least four years of work experience in the investment profession.

Comment: Things are changing at ING
In the March issue of ASSET we profiled the departure of Paul Fyfe from the helm of ING. Our reasoning was that this was in many ways the last of the old guard leaving our industry. (I guess a little debatable in retrospect as Jim Minto, for one, is part of the old guard). It was certainly the exit of one of the bigger personalities of the industry.

With Fyfe’s departure, I predict, we will now see many changes at ING. [MORE]

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