News Round Up

Rising Star named, Westpac and Principal settle. Don't like the tax proposals? How to have your say. Bumper year for St Laurence. Comment: Michael Cullen is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Monday, May 29th 2006, 12:01AM

Pengana Capital has been named as this year’s Rising Star award winner in the Money Management/IMCA Fund Manager of the Year Awards, while the Pengana Emerging Companies Fund was named as a Finalist in the Australian Shares (Small Cap) category.

"The Rising Star award is a solid recognition of the success the business has enjoyed in such a short period of time and reflects positively of the calibre of the investment management teams and of Pengana’s product offerings," the company says.

Pengana is a funds management business which was formed by former JB Were manager Steve Black and Ed Prendergast, who comes from a strong broking background in small caps.

Since launch the Pengana Emerging Companies Fund the Fund has achieved a total return of 56.0% after fees (but before performance fees), or some 16.6% ahead of the Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index to 30 April 2006.

Westpac and Principal settle
United States fund manager Principal Financial Group has settled Westpac's claim for up to A$50 million (NZ$61 million) in damages related to the bank's funds management arm BT Financial Group, Stuff reports.

The claims, which involve unit pricing errors and late filings for BT funds issued in New Zealand, occurred between 1996 and 2002 when Principal owned BT.

A spokesman for Westpac said the terms of the settlement were confidential.

About A$45 million of the original A$50 million claim related to unit pricing issues which, according to BT, resulted in certain fund values being overstated because of errors related to a tax asset called future income tax benefit.

Despite the settlement with Principal, Westpac is pursuing its High Court case regarding late exemption filings.

Don't like the tax proposals? Have your say
The closing date for submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates, Savings Investment, and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is 7 July. The bill has been referred to Parliament's Finance and Expenditure Committee for consideration.

Information on how to make a submission is available here.

Bumper year for St Laurence
St Laurence Property & Finance has announced a record result with a consolidated net surplus after tax of $31.09 million for the financial year ended 31 March 2006, up 72% on the $18.06 million surplus achieved the previous year. The earnings per security were 29.6 cents, up from 17.6 cents for the previous year.

Comment: Michael Cullen is wrong, wrong, wrong
The more these new tax plans for investments develop the worse they look.

As I said before IRD officials have worked hard on these proposals and have come up with something they believe is an appropriate solution to the so-called “problem”. [Read On]

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