News Round Up

KiwiSaver bulks up AXA's funds flow, First finance coy PIE, St Laurence gets bulk of money, Staff buy out hedge manager.

Monday, April 28th 2008, 5:59AM

AXA New Zealand says KiwiSaver funds are making up the bulk of its retail wealth management inflows at present.

Chief executive Ralph Stewart says retail wealth management inflows were $197 million for the March quarter, while net retail flows are negative $47.6m. Total funds under management at the end of the quarter were $8.7 billion.

Gross inflows have come largely from existing savers and new KiwiSavers who are investing for the long term.

"There is no doubt the outlook for the rest of 2008 is challenging for an increasing number of New Zealanders, especially KiwiSavers new to investing," Stewart says. "With 76% of all KiwiSavers aged between 17 and 54, this early market volatility is only a very, very small part of their journey towards retirement."

First finance company PIE fund

UDC is the first finance company to roll out new products under the Portfolio Investment Entity tax rules. It's two offerings are a term fund and a cash one. More

St Laurence gets bulk of money
St Laurence Property & Finance says that three quarters of its new mandatory convertible property notes were taken up. The offer was made to existing shareholders and noteholders.

SLPF executive chairman Kevin Podmore says the result was in line with expectations, particularly given the current market environment.

The proceeds will be used to assist in the funding of existing and upcoming growth opportunities including several targeted re-development opportunities in Auckland and Wellington, and to repay debenture stock, Podmore says.

Staff buy out hedge manager
A consortium of senior staff and strategic investors has acquired Infiniti Group in a management buyout. Infiniti manages a number of Hedge Fund of Funds and is based in Zurich and has offices in Christchurch, Hong Kong, and London.

In addition to the hedge funds, Infiniti also manages two specialist Emerging Manager fund-of-funds that specialise in investing in hedge funds during their first three years of operation.

"Our own research and numerous academic studies have identified this as the optimal time to invest in new funds," Infiniti says in a statement.

All of its funds, bar one are run on a global multi-strategy basis. Infiniti will be re-capitalised and restructured to focus on its core growth business of serving clients in Japan and the Asia Pacific Region.

Infiniti will be retaining a presence in Zurich and offices in Hong Kong, London and Christchurch.

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