AMP Henderson looks north again

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Tuesday 29th January 2002

New Zealand's largest investment manager, AMP Henderson Global Investors, is looking to international markets for growth this year after a strong showing by the local market in 2001.

AMP Henderson says 2001 provided its newest fund, the Strategic Equity Growth Fund, with a strong return of 32 % - over twice the NZSE's gross index 2001 return of 13.39%.

The fund was launched last year and pursues an absolute return strategy focusing on local companies without reference to market weightings.

The next best performing fund on an annual basis was the NZ Equities Active Fund which returned 19.98% while the Global Equities Active Fund performed worst with a negative 15.53% return.

AMP Henderson MD, Catherine Savage, says while the company believes local markets will still perform well in 2002, it has chosen to go modestly overweight in global equities to take advantage of expected growth in Northern Hemisphere markets.

"It now appears that global investment markets are starting to grow again with pre-tax returns of 2.8%, 4.5 % and 7% for the low risk, medium risk and high risk funds respectively for the December quarter. These are the strongest quarterly returns in 2001."

The annual figures from the company also show it has grown total funds under management from $9.8 billion to $11 billion.

"We are encouraged that investors saw the challenges of 2001 as an investment opportunity, and view this growth as an endorsement of our strength in funds management," says Catherine Savage.

"Outside of New Zealand it's also been a tough year for investment returns, with the global market adjustment having a marked effect on most equity funds."

AMP Henderson Global Investors controls around a quarter of New Zealand's $45 billion investment management market.

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