News Round Up

Guardian winds up fund; Northern Trust appointed custodian of NZDMO; PIS tops insurance ladder; Global Credit Notes matures

Monday, January 19th 2009, 5:09AM

Guardian winds up fund
Guardian Trust is winding up its Guardian Mortgage Fund, citing the serious situation in the financial market as catalyst.

“This has not been an easy decision, and we aim to working closely with investors to bring about a satisfactory resolution,” managing director Greg Campbell says.

The company says its primary focus will be to preserve investors’ capital and is organising a unit-holder meeting to discuss the move.

In 2008 the company moved to protect the fund when its liquidity dipped below acceptable operating limits. It also restructured the Guardian CashPie Fund to align with eligibility criteria for the Crown Deposit Guarantee Scheme.

Northern Trust appointed custodian of NZDMO
Northern Trust has been appointed global custodian to the New Zealand Debt Management Office (NZDMO).

It will be responsible for the provision of core custody and related services to NZDMO’s book of fixed income assets, valued at around $4 billion.

The appointment follows a comprehensive tender exercise which was completed in July last year.

NZDMO is part of the New Zealand Treasury and is responsible for the efficient management of the Crown’s debt and associated assets within an appropriate risk management framework.

PIS tops insurance ladder – again
Professional Investment Services (PIS) has maintained its dominance in new life insurance sales in Australia for the fifth consecutive quarter.

In Australia’s hugely competitive life insurance space, PIS is a relatively new player, only making insurance a key component of its product mix after it purchased IFMA from Norwich Union in 2000.

“After less than 10 years in the life insurance sector, PIS has shown how important it is for financial advisory groups to be able to provide the depth and diversity of products to meet the ever changing needs of our clients,” PIS chief Robbie Bennetts says.

Global Credit Notes offer matures
The $120 million Global Credit Note issue, promoted by Forsyth Barr in 2003, matured on 30 December and holders were repaid their principal of $1.00 per note and the final interest payment on that date.

Two tranches of Global Credit Notes of $60 million each were issued in December 2003 to both institutional and retail investors. These securities were linked to an international portfolio of 130 companies and other entities which had investment grade ratings at the time of issue. Standard & Poor's assigned initial credit ratings to the two series of AAA and A for Global Credit Notes Series 1 and 2 respectively.

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