Investor prudence reflected in managers' lacklustre quarter

Friday 3rd May 2002

The March quarter was lacklustre for investments, Mercer Investment Consulting executive director New Zealand Louis Boulanger said in issuing Mercer's quarterly survey of wholesale superannuation fund managers.

"The rebound sustained by international equity markets in the final quarter of 2001 slowed down during the first quarter of 2002, reflecting investors' caution over the speed of recovery of the global economy. All sectors posted small positive returns for the quarter, apart from unhedged overseas shares and foreign currency. The return of the median manager for the March quarter was -0.8% before tax and fees.

"Holding the lowest allocation to overseas shares helped Tower Asset Management achieve the highest return for the quarter of 1.3% before tax and fees.

"Other factors that helped Tower achieve this return were their high allocation to property and higher than market average cash position.

"Returns for the past 12 months have ranged between a gross 8.6% return for Colonial First State Investment Management to a -1.7% return from WestpacTrust Investment Management. The median return for the 12 months was 1.9% before tax and fees. Negative returns were posted by ING New Zealand (formerly known as Armstrong Jones), Guardian Trust Funds Management and WestpacTrust over that period."

MERCER NEW ZEALAND MANAGED FUND SURVEY

Returns for periods ended March 31, 2002

Manager/Fund	Three months		One year		Three years		Five years
	%	Rank	%	Rank	% pa	Rank	% pa	Rank

AMP Henderson Global Investors	-1.0	8	0.3	9	3.0	10	8.2	10
ANZ Asset Management	0.4	2	2.3	6	4.6	7	8.8	7
Alliance Capital Management	-0.9	7	1.5	7	5.4	5	8.6	8
Arcus Investment Management	-0.2	4	2.7	4	5.9	4	10.1	1
BNZ Investment Management	-1.0	8	0.6	8	5.0	6	9.7	3
BT Funds Management	-0.7	5	2.4	5	6.9	2	9.1	5
Colonial First State Inv Management	-0.7	5	8.6	1	7.5	1	9.0	6
Guardian Trust Funds Management	-1.3	12	-1.3	11	3.7	9	9.3	4
ING NZ	-1.2	11	-0.1	10	2.3	12	8.4	9
Mercer Retirement Trust	0.0	3	2.9	3	4.6	7	n/a
Tower Asset Management	1.3	1	5.2	2	6.4	3	9.9	2
Westpac Trust Inv Management	-1.1	10	-1.7	12	2.7	11	7.9	11

Number of funds	12		12		12		11
Upper quartile	-0.2		2.8		6.0		9.5
Median	-0.8		1.9		4.8		9
Lower quartile	-1.1		0.2		3.6		8.5
Managed fund	-1.2	11	-0.9	11	4.1	9	9	6

All rates of return are before tax and before management fees in NZ dollars. Rates of return are annualised for periods exceeding one year. Past investment performance is not an adequate test of comparative performance, or a reliable indicator of the expected absolute level of returns in the future.

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