Fisher on her new fund

Tuesday 3rd February 2004

Fisher Funds boss Carmel Fisher explains why she is establishing a listed investment company.

Carmel Fisher last week surprised the managed fund industry by announcing she was planning a $50 million IPO for a listed investment company.
This announcement came a day after the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZSF) revealed that Fisher Funds was managing some of its money.

The new company, Kingfish Limited, is intending to make an offer of up to 75 million ordinary shares to the public priced at $1 per share.

Fisher says she is setting up a listed investment trust as it is a more tax effective structure than a closed end fund.

Currently Fisher Funds has just under $200 million under management , and it has mandates to manage money for the dual listed New Zealand Investment Trust (which will compete with Kingfish), as well as some institutional funds and some private portfolios.

Fisher says it started getting the NZSF money late last year and had already invested the bulk of it.

She says although the company has a definite style and deliberately only invests in the small and medium sized companies there are no issues with liquidity or lack of suitable investments.

"There are no market capacity constraints."

She says the new fund will share the same investment philosophy as the other funds Fisher managers, and there are no plans to merge the closed ended funds into the listed vehicle. Fisher says it's necessary to have different fund types for different people.

One of the changes is that Fisher can invest in NZAX listed companies and unlisted ones.

Other listed investment companies in New Zealand include GPG, Hellaby and Infratil.

Fisher says the benefit of these types of vehicles is that investors are getting access to top quality management that that wouldn't otherwise be available to them.

Fisher Funds holds shares in GPG and she says an investment like that means she can draw on the expertise of Sir Ron Brierley.

Further details of the fund will be made available towards the end of the month.

Listed investment companies are currently popular in Australia. About A$900 million was raised in this sector in the three months to December 31 and reports suggest that up to A$1 billion could be raised in this part of the market in the next three months as fund managers bring new funds to the market.

A number of financial planners are embracing these vehicles as they are reportedly frustrated with the performance of managed funds. The main differences between the two (in addition to the obvious one that LICs are listed) are they operate through a company structure and generally have lower fees.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet