Fisher Funds Tops $50M In Australian Shares

Fisher Funds Tops $50M In Australian Shares

In just over a year since launching its Australian Growth Fund, Fisher Funds is now managing more than $50 million in Australian shares, the fund manager said today.

The Australian Growth Fund has posted a return of more than 28 per cent since it was launched in August last year.

Fisher Funds managing director Carmel Fisher said that the performance to date has shown investors its New Zealand model could also be successfully applied in the Australian market.

“Our first year has been real testament to the Fisher Funds investment process which has proven to be as successful in Australia as it has been in our home New Zealand market,” Ms Fisher said. “It’s been great to be able to reverse the recent trend and to see New Zealanders buying a stake in Australian companies.”

Ms Fisher said 2006 had also been a successful year in growing funds under management with over one thousand New Zealanders now investing in the Fisher Funds Australian Growth Fund.

“The key contributors to performance during the Australian fund’s first year of operation have been our investments in Credit Corp and Oakton,” said Senior Portfolio Manager Frank Jasper, who is responsible for the Australian Growth Fund. “Both companies are superbly managed and have posted earnings per share growth in excess of 65% over the last year. With such strong earnings growth it is not surprising that the share prices of both Credit Corp and Oakton have risen strongly since our initial purchase.”

“We believe the outlook for the Australian share market continues to be sound,” Mr Jasper said. “At Fisher Funds we focus on identifying attractive smaller companies that will be able to grow their earnings and hence their share price – a so called “bottom-up” approach. With over 1,600 listed companies, a domestic market of more than 20 million people and a land rich in mineral resources, we are finding plenty of great investment opportunities in Australia,” he said.

Ms Fisher said the Australian funds were expected to continue growing as Fisher Funds responded to client demand for innovative investment solutions. “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,” she said.

Ms Fisher said successful investing was all about having a great team. “As such we are pleased to have appointed Terry Tolich to strengthen our Australian equity capability. Terry has recently joined Fisher Funds from Goldman Sachs JB Were where he was a Senior Analyst. Terry has 24 years experience in financial markets and is a well known and respected analyst.

“We welcome Terry to the team and look forward to bringing his skills and experience to our investors,” Ms Fisher said.

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