News Round Up

Lots of new products including: a commodities fund, a high-yield corporate bond fund, one which funds property development and nine new installment warrants. Arcus appoints Australian manager and ASFONZ makes noises. What readers think about tax changes.

Tuesday, April 18th 2006, 6:47AM

Tower has launched two funds which fit into the high risk/ high return part of the investment spectrum. One is a commodities fund and the other invests in emerging market and US high yield corporate bonds.

Tower says the Global Commodity Fund is the first New Zealand-domiciled fund of its type to be made available to the general public, while the Extended Markets Fund introduces both emerging market and US high yield corporate bonds combined together and offers a higher risk/return profile than traditional international fixed income funds. Both funds are managed by PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company) the world’s largest bond manager and the largest manager of collateralised commodities.

The commodity fund is a collateralised commodity fund that tracks its benchmark. The index represents the collateralised return of an annually rebalanced basket of long-only futures contracts on 19 commodities in six industrial categories: energy, industrial metals, precious metals, livestock, grains and food/fibre. Commodities are selected for index representation based on their futures market liquidity and US dollar-denominated global physical production.

They are available through Tower’s Mezzanine Investment Series.

New fund 2

St Laurence is looking to roll out property development fund which will leverage off its experience and expertise and offer investors the prospect of higher returns than ordinary property funds.

The Property Development Fund is looking to raise $10 million from investors, with the funds to be invested in development projects in “partnership” with proven and reputable developers. St Laurence will be matching the investors’ equity.

New product 3
ABN Amro has added nine new warrants to the ones already traded on the NZX. They cover Auckland International Airport, Fletcher Building, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Freightways, Hallenstein Glassons, Telecom, Tower, PGG Wrightson, and The Warehouse.

They bring the total of warrants that are listed on the New Zealand market to 36, and are expected to add to the growing popularity of this investment tool.

"Both ABN Amro and UBS have been supportive of warrants trading from day one, and their enthusiasm for this investment tool, which has long been popular in overseas markets but was unavailable in New Zealand until last year, is being shared by growing numbers of investors," said NZX Markets Development Manager Geoff Brown.

Arcus appoints Australian manager
Arcus Investment Management has appointed MIR Investment Management to manage an Australian equity portfolio.

“The addition of a manager that is exclusively devoted to the research of Australian companies is a real value add for our clients,” Arcus chief investment officer Mark Brighouse says.

“Given the anticipated slowdown of the New Zealand economy, the importance of diversifying between Australasian investment managers has become very apparent.”

“We believe the Australian sharemarket offers a better outlook and fewer risks than the local market, and consequently its sharemarket continues to be a most appropriate means of diversification for local investors,” Brighouse says.

MIR is a boutique, specialist Australian equity manager that currently managers more than A$2.5 billion.

Comment: What readers are saying about tax changes
We have had quite a few emails last week about the proposed tax changes to investments. The following is a sample of what people are saying.[MORE]

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