Challenger reports year of growth
Challenger has signed off the year to June 30 on a positive note with an after tax profit increase of 91 per cent.
Challenger announced it had gone from a profit of just over $80 million in the 2000 financial year to $154 million in 2001.
The funds manager says it achieved particularly strong results in the group’s flagship annuities product, the Howard Mortgage Trust which attracted $1.5 billion as the largest commercial mortgage trust in Australia, and the Synergy Master Trust which has grown to more than $1 billion in funds under management.
Challenger managing director Bill Ireland says the 2001 financial year has been pivotal in the integration of a number of acquisitions of previous years. He also attributes Challenger’s success to its strength in the realm of distribution.
“Our speciality is developing distinctive products and distributing them through existing intermediaries,” he says. “Over 2001 we planned to build a dynamic distribution team that is constantly in contact with financial planners, advisers, accountants and stockbrokers.”
The year also coincided with the move into the UK market in the expansion of the group’s property interests, notably in the purchase of City of London’s Square Mile. The move into the UK also involved the buyout of endowment specialist Neville James, which Challenger is trying to mould to reflect its Australian operations in retirement income streams.
Other results were in its newly created corporate superannuation vehicle (CSS) which hauled in $500 million in its first year; and taking its seat as the number one placeholder in Intech’s Australian equities manager for 2001, with an annual return of 23 per cent.
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