News Briefs – November 18 2004

Boutique bonanza

St George Bank-owned Ascalon Capital Managers has acquired an equity stake of up to 46 per cent in Alleron Investment Management, to bring the number of boutique fund managers it holds equity in to seven.

Established by Albert Hung and Barry Littler in July this year, Alleron is a specialist domestic equities manager with a strong growth bias, relying heavily on stock specific risk for its expected performance.

Ascalon will progressively inject capital into Alleron over a three-year period via a series of equity tranches, and also provide close support on all aspects of the business, Ascalon chief executive Ray De Lucia said.

NAB’s poor result

National Australia Bank, despite reporting a healthy operating profit for its wealth management business, has ended an otherwise tough year on a bad note after last week reporting a significant fall in cash earnings for 2004.

NAB chief executive John Stewart described the bank’s 15 per cent decline in cash earnings to $3.46 billion, and 19.7 per cent drop in net profit to $3.18 billion, as a “poor result” and “unacceptable for the National and its shareholders”.

The bank’s wealth management division recorded net operating profit growth of 9.4 per cent.

Property fund float

Specialist property manager MacarthurCook Funds Management has started accepting offers from investors ahead of a scheduled public listing of a new fund it will float in December.

The group began accepting offers this week for its MacarthurCook Property Securities Fund, having lodged a product disclosure statement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) last week.

MacarthurCook is offering up to 70 million units of the property fund at $1 per unit, with 80 per cent of the fund to be invested in unlisted property trusts and syndicates with a 20 per cent exposure to listed property trusts.