News Round Up

Creating one trans-Tasman securities market, Fisher Funds gets sharper Oz focus, New online ethical investing course, S&P confirms Commodity Bonds rating.

Monday, September 11th 2006, 6:33AM

Draft regulations that will enable mutual recognition of securities offerings, allowing issuers to offer securities in Australia and New Zealand using the documents of their home jurisdiction, have been released.

"The regime is intended to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to trans-Tasman securities offerings and reduce the costs of raising capital in both Australia and New Zealand," Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel says.

"The release of the draft regulations is the next step towards completing one of the major achievements under the memorandum of understanding on business law co-ordination between Australia and New Zealand, signed earlier this year."

Fisher Funds gets sharper Oz focus

Fisher Funds is looking to be more active in the Australian market. Its year-old Australian Growth Fund has more than $50 million in funds under management and it is looking at launching a new fund.

“We are actively considering a new product to give investors access to the Australian share market, and expect to be in a position to make an announcement on this in the next few weeks,” Fisher Funds managing director Carmel Fisher says.

She says the company’s investment process has proven to be as successful in Australia as it has been in the New Zealand market.

New online ethical investing course
The Ethical Investment Association and SAI Global are, this week, launching a specialist course for financial advisors in ethical investing.

The first of its kind in the world, this course provides financial advisers and dealer Groups with the essential skills and knowledge they need to offer Ethical Investment advice, tap into a rapidly growing market and deliver superior client service.

S&P confirms Commodity Bonds rating
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has assigned its AA- rating to the repackaged bonds (known as commodity bonds) issued by Generator Bonds.

The proceeds of the Commodity Bonds will be invested in the 'AA-' rated Series 9 New Zealand dollar fixed-rate managed commodity-linked notes issued by Belo Plc (Belo), a special-purpose company established in Ireland by Barclays Bank AG (Barclays).

The Belo notes are debt securities whose payment of principal is linked to the performance of a managed reference portfolio of commodity trigger swaps, each referencing a trigger price on a commodity. At the issue date, there are 100 trigger prices on nine commodities.

The rating on the commodity bonds reflects the rating on the Belo notes, which, in turn, reflects Standard & Poor's assessment of the price movement of commodities in the reference portfolio.

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