News Round Up

Sunday, July 4th 2004, 9:28PM

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Tax review appointment
Good Returns understands that former BT Funds Management chief executive Craig Stobo has been appointed to present the government with an options paper on tax options for savings vehicles.

Good Returns first revealed the government was accelerating plans to reform the tax environment two weeks ago (see story Here.

Stobo's appointment is understood to have been put to Cabinet last Monday, however no formal announcement has been made.

Rating outlook on AMP subsidiaries revised to positive

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has revised the rating outlook on AMP Life, AMP Group Holdings, and AMP Bank to positive from stable, and affirmed the insurer financial strength and counterparty credit ratings on these companies.

AMP Life is now rated 'A+/Positive', while both AMP Group Holdings and AMP Bank are rated 'BBB+/Positive/A-2'.

The outlook revision to positive reflects the improved financial structure and quality of capital of the AMP Ltd group following the demerger of its poorly performing U.K. operations, and material reduction in debt and hybrid securities.

Calan deal falls over
The conditional agreement Calan Healthcare Properties Trust had to sell the Artemis Medical Centre on Auckland’s North Shore to Radius Health Group has lapsed.

The sale was initially to go unconditional on May 31 and this deadline was extended until June 30.

Radius has informed Calan it would not be going unconditional nor seek an extension of the conditional agreement. The two parties have agreed to continue discussions on an informal basis.

Salvus up, StoreFund down
Salvus Strategic Investments' IPO closed on Friday and the fund is due to list on the NZX on Thursday.

The original offer period was extended three weeks and on June 18 the company said it had raised more than the $20 million minimum that it needed to proceed. (The offer was for up to $50 million of shares and warrants).

Meanwhile the StoreFund offer failed to get off the ground and underwriters ASB have ended up taking a majority stake in the BBQ Factory - StoreFund's first proposed investment. [MORE]

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