Fisher Funds expands investment team

10 June 2005

Fisher Funds expands investment team and purchases Coronet Asset Management Limited

Fisher Funds announced today that agreement had been reached to purchase Coronet Asset Management Limited (CAM) from The Equitable Group.

CAM is the manager of the Coronet Equity Trust, a unit trust investing in shares in New Zealand and Australia. The Trust has approximately $8m under management.

Fisher Funds Managing Director Carmel Fisher said “We believe that focused active investment management will greatly improve the prospects of the Trust in the future.”

The Equitable Group’s Chief Executive David Forgie said “We are delighted that Fisher Funds is taking over the management of the Coronet Equity Trust. We expect Fisher Fund’s track record of investment performance and its commitment to build the product will benefit unit holders significantly.”

The purchase of CAM enables Fisher Funds to offer its loyal investor clients an Australian equities investment capability. “Our clients have been telling us for some time that they would like us to widen our product range, and acquiring CAM does just that” says Carmel Fisher. “We believe our unique and proven philosophy of investing in a concentrated portfolio of smaller, well managed, growing companies will see us generate attractive returns in the Australian equity market.”

In tandem with the purchase of Coronet Asset Management Fisher Funds announces two significant additions to its investment team.

Frank Jasper and Andrea Struik have joined the firm to focus on the research and management of Australian shares. Frank comes to Fisher Funds from a major New Zealand broking firm where he was responsible for portfolio management and investment strategy. He is joined by Andrea Struik, a recent arrival to New Zealand from the United Kingdom, where she worked for a boutique funds manager.

Commenting on the additions to the investment team Carmel Fisher said that “we are delighted to have Frank and Andrea join the team. They are both experienced investment professionals and will be able to take the proven Fisher Funds approach and apply it to investing in the Australian share market. Their early work has already identified some very interesting investment opportunities.”

Current Coronet Equity Trust unit holders will be invited to a meeting to be held in July to meet the Fisher Funds team and gain a greater understanding of how the Trust can be developed going forward.

ENDS

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