News Round Up

SSgA achieves ETF milestone; Sirius Wealth launches specialist portfolio; Guardians of NZ Super receive Auditor General's approval; Macquarie Reflexion Trust is 'sound'; GPG not to extent partial offer for Tower; St Laurence net profit up 21.9%

Tuesday, June 3rd 2008, 6:03AM

SSgA achieves ETF milestone
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) have achieved a major Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) milestone – punching through the A$1 billion threshold in locally-sourced assets under management (AUM).

This result represents a 33.10% increase in assets over the 12 months to May 16 2008.

The milestone comes despite major equity market falls, indicating investors are steadily purchasing new ETF units to take advantage of lower prices and higher than expected market returns.

SSgA is the pioneer of the global ETF phenomenon, having launched the world's first EFT in partnership with the American Stock Exchange in 1993 – the SPDR [SPY: AMEX], pronounced "Spider".

Sirius Wealth launches specialist portfolio

To take advantage of the world-wide 'boom' that looks set to continue for a time yet, fund manager Sirius Wealth has launched its retail investment operation with a New Zealand 'first' – a specialist commodity portfolio, managed by parent company Commodity Strategies Limited.

The portfolio kicks off Sirius Wealth's plans for a number of other initiative investment funds planned for this year.

The Commodity Portfolio is an extension of a similar fund Commodity Strategies, which was voted by The Australian as among the Top 100 performers to watch in 2008. It is also the only fund on the list managed by a New Zealand-based group.

Guardians of NZ Super receive Auditor General's approval
The Auditor General has released a report on the governance and management of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

Guardians' chairman David May said the review is an important milestone for the Guardians, as they are a relatively new organisation.

"The Auditor General's review provides a useful set of recommendations to guide us in our ongoing work. All of these recommendations are either well-advanced, or on our agenda for the next stage of development," May said.

The report provides independent assurances that the Fund is well run, and that their internal control and governance framework meets or exceeds internationally recognised practices and guidelines.

Macquarie Reflexion Trust is 'sound'
Standard & Poor's Fund Services has assigned its 'sound' rating to the Macquarie Reflexion Trust, under its structured-product rating criteria.

"Each investment includes an investment in an investment-linked swap and a foreign-currency forward-rate agreement. These components ensure that at least sufficient funds are returned at maturity to clear the maturing investment loan," S&P fund analyst Colin Atkin said.

Applications for the product opened on May 1 2008 and will close on June 30 2008.

GPG not to extent partial offer for Tower
Guinness Peat Group says it is highly confident its partial offer for Tower will be successful and the offer will not be extended beyond the current closing date of June 19.

GPG, which is already a 19.7% shareholder in Tower, announced its $67.5 million offer at $2.30 a share in early May, aiming to take its shareholding to 35%.

St Laurence net profit up 21.9%
St Laurence Property T& Finance Limited (SPLF) have announced a net profit after tax of $28.5 million for the year ending 31 March 2008, up 21.9% on the $23.3 million reported in the previous year.

SPLF continued to strengthen its equity position in 2008 with consolidated equity as at 31 March 2008 increasing to $195.9 million, from $153.1 million in 2007.

During the year, SPLF's total assets increased to $498.5 million, from $436.2 million in 2007 as a result of valuation growth and acquisitions of $54.9 million.

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