News Round Up
But that's exactly what Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel did at the PIS Conference this week. While she shared the platform on adviser regulation with the bosses of the IFA and PAA, Dalziel spent a good chunk of her opening getting stuck into EUFA. [Read On]
Tower changes manager of Spotlight Europe Fund
Tower Investments has changed the manager of its Tower Spotlight Europe Fund.
The new manager is Marathon Asset Management, replacing Aberdeen Asset Management.
Marathon is also the manager of the Tower Global Fund, an international equities fund.
Tower believes by appointing Marathon, they are continuing their approach of working with a select number of high quality specialist asset managers otherwise difficult for New Zealand investors to access.
"By appointing Marathon we have given the Tower Spotlight Europe Fund a whole new lease of life as a focused regional fund," Tower CEO Sam Stubbs said.
St Laurence slated for weekend rule
A Napier-based adviser is urging St Laurence to pay out on debentures that matured on the weekend before the finance company froze redemptions "as a matter of honour".
John Sumner, principal of Sumner Ryan, said St Laurence had refused to redeem debentures that matured on June 28 and 29 – the Saturday and Sunday prior to the official shutdown by St Laurence on June 30.
Sumner said several of his clients had debentures due to mature over that weekend and they were surprised their funds were not released.
However, in an email, St Laurence told Sumner that debentures maturing on the weekend were treated as due on the next working day.
Vestar vapourised
The remains of Vestar went into liquidation last week with a preliminary report due on August 28.
On August 19, Auckland-base firm Corporate Finance was appointed as liquidator of the Octavier-owned Vestar, which recently changed its official name to FP North following the buyout of about half the financial advisory firm's assets and client base by Gould Holdings.
John Cregton, Corporate Finance principal said the preliminary report due later this week is unlikely to throw too much more light on the state of FP North/Vestar's assets.
A further report is due in March next year, however Cregton said creditors should receive updates well before then.
The liquidation applies only to the remaining Vestar assets held by Octavier, not those sold to Gould Holdings.
Gould, which picked up about $400 million and 1,600 clients from the troubled advisory firm, still trades under the Vestar name.
