Fisher shows TOWER managers the door

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It's only been two weeks since Fisher Funds took ownership of TOWER Investments, but that's been enough time to review the investment team and terminate 15 positions.

Monday, April 22nd 2013, 6:00AM 4 Comments

As a result of the review, 15 TOWERple have lost their jobs,including former chief executive Sam Stubbs, Roger Perry, Michael Coote, investment managers, analysts and support people.

Not all roles are being terminated immediately, with some, such as Stubbs, working out a six-onth notice period.

Fisher Funds managing director Carmel Fisher said many of roles were duplicated when the Tower business was acquired by her company and these people “were not required under the new structure”.

She says people have been kept in areas such as direct property, where Fisher Funds doesn’t have appropriate investment managers.

Over the past two weeks, Fisher have been getting to know the new business and says “we haven’t found any surprises”.

She says too much has been made of the two firms' different investment styles. While Fisher is a growth manager Tower takes a value-based approach.

She says a review of all holdings have been made and there is a large crossover in asset ownership.

“The style difference has been somewhat overstated,” she says.

The two investment managers have different investment mandates and Fisher has no plans to change these. “We will adhere to all the investment mandates as they are. There is plenty of scope [within them] for our team to pick stocks.”

Fisher says no changes are being made to any of the KiwiSaver funds.

In terms of mandates Fisher will continue to use PIMCO for Tower’s international fixed interest however other mandates have been transferred from Tower Investments to Fisher Funds.

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