Liontamer back in NZ hands

The founders of boutique fund manager Liontamer have bought back control of the business from Belgium bank KBC for an undisclosed sum.

Thursday, January 22nd 2009, 4:56AM

Laetitia Peterson and Janine Starks sold a 51% stake in the business to KBC in 2007, however the bank is reviewing its non-core operations around the world and has decided to exit the capital protected business in New Zealand.

Starks says in some ways the change “was not entirely unexpected” as banks around the world are making similar changes, however, she is excited to have control of all the business and says Liontamer will continue to operate in New Zealand.

Under the KBC ownership Liontamer branched out into Australia where its opened ended funds, such as the Water Fund, were developed. Starks says the Australian business has been split from the New Zealand one; KBC fully own the Australian business, but are also reviewing its ownership of that operation.

She says the relationship with KBC officially ends on January 30. There will be a transitional period where Liontamer still has access to the bank’s research and product pricing capabilities.

Liontamer will continue to be innovative and offer products in the market. One thing the company is looking at is using New Zealand banks to provide the capital protection to its products.

Starks acknowledges the market place is very different to what it was when KBC bought into Liontamer.

She says the volatility in the market place has meant that the company has decided to withdraw its current Fallen Angels 2 fund and return application money to investors.

This has been done as with falling interest rates it is difficult to get the pricing right for the offer.

It is the first time Liontamer has had to pull a fund, and is being done “in the best interests of investors”. No-one loses money as all applications received for the fund have been held in interest-bearing deposits.

Starks says in this market it is hard to price funds like this which track a small basket of individual stocks. Future funds rolled out this year are likely to be based on global indices which are bigger and more stable.

“Right now there is no rush (to roll out new funds), as we need to wait for the markets to calm down a little more and the pricing environment to improve.”

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