Forum Archive Index - July 2001

["Grant Keymer" <grant@jenlogix.co.nz>]

Mark,

 

My sympathies...

 

I too once had small holdings in the Jardine Fleming Taipan Trust (which has now been taken over by Dresdner).

 

I would never touch this fund manager again!

After keeping my units for 5 years, they were still down by 25% (+5% loss on AU$:NZ$ exchange rate).

That was a lot better than they had been a year earlier so I decided to sell them and used the money for an overseas trip.

 

As luck would have it, in the next 6 months they rose by 70% during the tech stock boom.

If I had kept them 6 months longer I could have made 30% profit.

But now the price is back to break-even again.

Break-even after 7 years is not my idea of a good fund manager.

So as far as I am concerned, Fleming is one I would stay clear of.

 

Looking at Trustnet, I can see why you're unhappy  :(

 

Your Charter European Trust (owned by Dresdner) has actually performed even worse over the past year.

Looking at the discount to NTA for this fund, I would say many investors have bailed out.

13% discount to NTA is quite high compared to many other funds.

AOT for example is currently 5.1% and has been steadily narrowing over the past year, indicating that its shares are in demand by investors.

 

However, it's not all doom and gloom.  Looking at the Discount to NTA graph for Charter European Trust, it seems that it has levelled out at 14% since February.  This probably means that the value of your shares will track the underlying markets from here on, which is all most of us can expect over time.  You may actually be better remaining with this fund in the hope that they can lift their game, rather than switching to another fund which has a much smaller discount to NTA.

 

As a matter of interest, do you mind telling us which (if any) broker recommended that you invest in these funds?

 

Because I would make a point of telling anyone who will listen, not to touch their company with a bargepole!

 

As with all investments in sharemarkets:

One or two years is much too short a timeframe.  Chances are about one in three that you will experience a negative return.  And you (along with many of the rest of us), struck the jackpot.

 

Cheers Mark

 
Grant Keymer
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