Fund manager of the year – Friendly society bonds

1st: Heine Group

2nd: Home Building Society

3rd: Mutual Friendly Society

Property is not exactly the sexiest of asset classes these days. But Victoria's Heine Group, in taking out the award for friendly societies, has shown that strength and focus, even in unfashionable sectors, can pay off.

Perhaps best known for their innovation in the syndicated property trust market, Heine's clear win in the Friendly Society category was due to the solid one-year and three-year performance of Heine Investment Management's Heine Investment Bond. In a traditionally low-return sector, the $73 million Heine Investment Bond's one-year and three-year returns, as calculated by ASSIRT, were around 50 basis points clear of its nearest rival, the Home Building Society's $21 million Home Owners Friendly Society Shelter Bonds.

The reason for Heine's strong results with this product is simple, according to Carolyn Hampton, funds research manager at ASSIRT. "The investment bond is a mortgage fund, and Heine are very good mortgage managers," she says.

In a prevailing environment of low interest rates such as Australia's at present, the ability to value-add in areas like mortgage management is crucial to gaining above-average returns with low volatility in low-risk sectors like friendly society bonds, Hampton says.

As with several other award categories, none of the three place-getters from last year - Australian Unity, IOOF and Lifeplan - featured in the top three in 1999.

This year's third-placegetter, Mutual Friendly Society, did well with its $362 million Mutual Friendly Investment Bond as well as its smaller Tax Saver Passbook and Commonwealth Securities Fund.