Colonial First State scores highest return

Friday 10th November 2000

All managers in the Mercer managed funds survey produced positive returns, before tax and expenses, for the September quarter. The return of the median manager was 3.2% before tax and fees.

A strong Australasian equity performance from a portfolio that did not include Telecom helped Colonial First State have the highest return for the quarter with 4.3% before tax and fees.

Returns for the past 12 months ranged between a gross 23.3% return for BT Funds Management (BTFM) and a gross 11.9% return for Tower Asset Management (TAM). The median for the 12 months was 15.9% before tax and fees.

The average exposure to growth assets in the discretionary balanced funds was 57.6%.

Only two managers had less than 30% invested in overseas equities, while the highest exposure to domestic equities was ANZ Asset Management's 20.7%.

Three years ago, only two managers had overseas equity allocations over 30% (TAM and Arcus). Today, TAM has 30% allocated to overseas equities (the third lowest relative allocation). Also TAM has a 1% lower exposure to overseas equities compared with three years ago while other managers have all increased their exposure to this asset class and by 10.9% on average.

ANZ Asset Management was the highest-performing manager in 1997 but is ninth today. In contrast, WestpacTrust was the lowest-performing manager three years ago but is now above median. The most consistent managers, having above-median three-year results in both surveys, are Armstrong Jones, BTFM and Guardian Trust Funds Management.

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