Weekly briefs

J B Were moves south, Flemings consolidates, Politicans still boot super football, Corks popping, Conversion Incentive extended & house sales up.

Sunday, December 20th 1998, 12:00AM

Sharebrokers J B Were have set up shop in Dunedin and recruited two senior staff from local brokerage firm Forsyth Barr.
Head of private client services Guy Hedley says J B Were is now the only major brokerage firm to have offices in all four main centres.
He says Dunedin was attractive as it was a market that didn't have "a strong research based brokerage firm."
Hedley describes the move as "a good opportunity to provide some value-added research into the Dunedin market."
James Reid, who was head of private client services at Forsyth Barr will manage J B Were's office. Alan Stout is the other Forsyth Barr staff member joining J B Were.

Flemings consolidates
A decision to merge Jardine Fleming into Robert Fleming is being described as a logical strategic move in today’s global financial markets, according to Jardine Matheson managing director Alasdair Morrison.
While the move has little impact on the group's New Zealand operations, it is a sign of further consolidation within the global financial services industry.
A unified ownership structure is expected to significantly extend the group’s ability to offer a seamless service to its asset management and investment banking clients and create greater scope to develop common processes and systems.
Jardine Fleming's New Zealand manager John Carpenter says the rearrangement of shareholdings makes the business more global, rather than its current perception of being an Asian-related business.

Political opposition to taskforce
The Superannuation 2000 Taskforce hasn't got off to a good start politically.
One of the stated aims of the 10-member taskforce is to remove the politics from the superannuation conundrum, however a number of parties, including New Zealand First and the Alliance says they will have nothing to do with it.
The Alliance will have nothing to do with the Government's Superannuation Taskforce because it is a front for the privatisation of superannuation, Alliance leader Jim Anderton said.
"The Prime Minister has hand-picked a notorious bunch of discredited right-wing fuddy-duddies who are well-known for their advocacy of turning the provision of superannuation over to the insurance industry," Alliance leader Jim Anderton says.
He claims the taskforce is part of a plan to privatise superannuation.
NZ First leader Winston Peters says his party will be developing and campaigning on its own, soon-to-be released scheme.

Corks popping
Two winery companies have completed successful capital raisings in the past week.
Nobilo Wines debuted on the New Zealand Stock Exchange at $1.10 on Friday, a 37.5 per cent premium, however its price retreated to $1.01 by the end of the day.
Nobilo gained 1700 new shareholders through the offering, and they own 17 per cent of the company.
Also, last week an initial public offering from Wairarapa winery Lintz Estate closed over-subscribed on Tuesday.
Subscriptions exceeded $4 million, the maximum amount able to be accepted, and above the $3.5 million sought, chairman John Falloon said.
"The directors had agreed to accept over-subscriptions up to the maximum with the result that some scaling would be applied to some larger applications."
Lintz planned to have its shares traded on the New Zealand Stock Exchange's unlisted board from Monday, December 21.

Conversion scheme extended
Guardian Assurance is extending its conversion incentive scheme another two months to the end of February.
The scheme offers clients the opportunity to switch out of older style insurance contracts to more modern and flexible ones.
The scheme, which kicked off in October, has been successful.

House sales up
Sales volumes for homes increased significantly in November, the Real Estate Institute says.
Real estate agents sold 7381 homes in November, 775 more than the previous month and 138 more than in the corresponding period last year.
It says the median price of $168,000 was $3000 higher than October, but lower than that recorded last November.
Institute president Max Oliver says while buyers have been cautious there are signs that some confidence was beginning to return to the market.

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