News Round Up

There has been speculation in the markets that Westpac has been considering mounting a takeover bid for Tower Corporation.

Neither Tower nor Westpac have confirmed the speculation. However, reports in Australia and in the Evening Post say Westpac has decided against bidding for the group.

Tower is seen as a potential takeover target even though its constitution has a share cap which prevents any investor holding more than 10% of the stock before 2003.

Others thought to be interested in Tower are Sir Ron Brierley's GPG Group (which used to own Tyndell in Australia).

National opposes prefunding
The National Party has put out a policy paper on superannuation that opposes the Government's plans to prefund New Zealand Superannuation, but supports tax incentives.

The paper was written by a taskforce that was established in August and chaired by former party president Sir George Chapman.

It is not official party policy. Rather it is a discussion paper designed to develop a policy.

The key ideas in it are that it opposes pre funding of super on the grounds that the proposed scheme will only provide 14% of NZ Super costs.

That tax incentives for long term contractual savings become a key plan in the party's super policy and that tax incentives are provided for health insurance.

Pay off debt sooner
Retirement Commissioner Colin Blair is urging New Zealanders with mortgages to take advantage of lower interest rates to get rid of their debt quickly so they can start saving for retirement sooner.

"When mortgage interest rates drop, the temptation may be for new home buyers to purchase a more expensive home than they might otherwise.

"Likewise, people already with mortgages may be tempted to take advantage of a drop in their repayments to increase their discretionary spending in other areas.

"Our advice is to view the drop in mortgage lending rates as a great opportunity to improve your financial position by getting rid of your debt faster.

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