Weekly briefs

BT bidding, ANZFM joins ISI, Time running out, Essential reading, Events this week

Sunday, May 16th 1999, 12:00AM

Speculation across the Tasman has Bank of New Zealand's parent company, National Australia Bank as the hot favourite to win the race to acquire BT Funds Management.
Underpinning this speculation NAB's announcement, last week, that it had raised up to $2 billion of capital in the United States.
Going against NAB is its characteristic to be more of a "bottom-feeder" when it comes to acquisitions, as opposed to a firm which pays top prices.
Firms bidding for BT are currently in the due diligence process, which is likely to run until the end of May.
Six bidders are doing due diligence currently, including NAB, Chase Bank, ASB Bank's parent Commonwealth Bank and Lend Lease (MLC).

ANZFM joins ISI
ANZ Funds Management is the latest group to join the Investment Savings and Insurance Association.
ANZFM general manager Anthony Quirk has been appointed to the board and will chair a newly formed investment management subcommittee.

Time running out
With less than eight weeks to go before ACC no longer provides workplace accident insurance, employers are being advised to act quickly.
Fusion Insurance Services has asked brokers to submit requests for quotation no later than June 18, to allow sufficient time to return a quote, have it accepted by the client and lodged into the system.
Insurers are required to provide a list of their clients to the market regulator by June 26.On June 28 the regulator will determine which employers, not registered, will be covered by State-Owned-Enterprise @Work.

Confidence rebounds
Investor confidence has risen significantly in the three months to March 31, according to the latest ASB Bank investor confidence survey.
Nearly a quarter of respondents expect the net return on their investments to be better this year than last year. That finding is a six-percentage point increase over the previous quarter. Also there has been a very large decline in the number or respondents who expect their return to be worse this year.
"For the first time since the survey commenced in March 1998 we have seen a net 5 per cent of respondents positive about the outlook of investment returns, a big turnaround from the net 11 per cent who expected returns to deteriorate in the December quarter," ASB chief manager investment services Roger Perry says.

Essential reading
An essential book for anyone investing in the local sharemarket is the New Zealand Investment Year.
The book, which has been published since 1973, is a handbook of financial information and comments covering all companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.
The latest edition is now available and can be bought through Good Returns bookstore.
Click here to order your copy NOW!

Coming up this week
Wednesday - Reserve Bank's six weekly review of Official Cash Rate. The rate is predicted to remain at 4.5 per cent, and little change is expected in the bank's economic forecasts. Details will be available in the Mortgage News page.
Thursday - Budget

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