ASIC puts brakes on three funds

TheAustralian and Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) has issued stop orders on three separate fund managers.

Two are interim stop orders placed on New England Mortgage Fund Ltd (NEMF) and Australian Fund Ltd (AF), which have until the end of the week to amend their prospectuses to fulfil ASIC’s requirements. The third was a final stop order on the Australian Cattle Fund (ACF), which had an interim order placed on it on September 24.

The NEMF and AF funds were singled out by the securities watchdog for not providing adequate information for investors.

NEMF’s prospectus could have misled investors, ASIC says, to believe the mortgage fund manager conducted credit checks prior to all investments, when in fact it only conducted credit checks on request.

AF, meanwhile, had not disclosed investment strategies or parameters according to its investment funds, the watchdog says.

The ACF was stopped from operating with the consent of the company after an interim stop order was placed on it the week before. The main sticking point was that the fund had not obtained a dealer’s licence, although the fund had stipulated this fact in the prospectus.

ASIC believed that the fund ought to have gone further and highlighted what impact it’s failure to obtain a licence might have, and that this should have been disclosed as a material risk as well.