Weekly Wrap: Festive final wrap

A couple of pretty big stories emerged this week. One which is fascinating was the move by Sam Stubbs from Hanover to Tower Investments where he takes over from Tony Hildyard.

I've only met Sam when he took part in ASSET Magazine's Roundtable and was impressed with him. No doubt it is a great appointment for Tower and will certainly ease any fears investors and advisers had about the company, following the departure of Hildyard and equities manager Wayne Stetchman earlier this year.

While that is good news for Tower, Bridgecorp investors got an unwanted surprise this week. The latest report from the receiver painted a pretty grim picture. Likely payouts have shrunk and the timing of any dividends is uncertain.

Also this week we have in depositrates.co.nz news of a first payment to Clegg and Co investors.

The other big report was the review of New Zealand's retirement income policies. In the report, penned by Retirement Commission Diana Crossan, it suggests that the country can't afford NZ Superannuation (the state pension) and KiwiSaver. It seems the report is softening the public up for changes, such as raising the age of eligibility for the pension. This has been given a big raspberry by politicians – yet it is a sensible and logical thing to do.

There are quite a few new investments in the market at the moment. In Good Returns we have a Special Report on Savings and Loans latest Kauri Units offer, plus a news story.

A couple of offers which closed are the South Canterbury Finance notes and Credit Agricole's deeply discounted notes, which raised $125 million and $250 million respectively. Details on these and the final rates are here.