Three in a row for BNZ

For the third year in a row, BNZ Investment Management has taken the Fund Manager of the Year title in the annual FundSource managed funds awards, announced yesterday.

Tower Managed Funds and BT Funds Management were second and third.

The winners are chosen by research company FundSource, which also looks for the best funds in 10 categories.

This year, the winners of those category prizes were:

* NZ cash

1st: Guardian Trust Financial Services (Guardian CashPlus Fund). Runner-up: ING (ANZ Flexi Cash Fund).

* NZ mortgages

1st: Perpetual Trust (Perpetual Mortgage Fund). Runner-up: Tower Managed Funds (Tower MortgagePlus fund).

* NZ property

1st: ING (ING Property Securities Fund). Runner-up: BT Funds Management (BT NZ Property Fund).

* NZ shares

1st: Fisher Funds Management (Fisher Funds NZ Growth Fund). Runner-up: National Bank (Thoroughbred NZ Equity Growth Trust).

* International shares

1st: Tower Managed Funds (Tower GAM Global Gateway Fund). Runner-up: none.

* NZ fixed interest

1st: Asteron Life (Asteron Corporate Bond Trust). Runner-up: Asteron Life (Asteron NZ Fixed Interest Trust).

* Diversified defensive

1st: Tower Managed Funds (Tower Tasman Conservative Growth). Runner-up: Public Trust (Public Trust Defensive Fund).

* Diversified balanced

1st: Tower Managed Funds (Tower Tasman Balanced Growth). Runner-up: Public Trust (Public Trust Balanced Fund).

* Diversified growth

1st: BT Funds Management (BT NZ Managed Growth Trust). Runner-up: National Bank (Thoroughbred Growth Trust).

There was no winner in the international fixed-interest category.

The awards are open to New Zealand-based managers which offer "retail" funds - those open to the public.

FundSource winnows down the more than 500 funds on offer by setting a number of tests which they have to pass to be eligible.

Those include ownership stability, being an "active" manager, having at least three years' performance history, no high up-front costs and requiring a minimum investment of no more than $5000.

Funds which passed those tests were then assessed on their performance over the three years to the end of June.

The overall Fund Manager of the Year title goes to the manager whose funds in four categories - NZ/Australian shares, bonds/income, global shares and diversified - have been the best performers.

FundSource says BNZ won for its "consistent, disciplined and conservative" approach.

The method used to judge the awards means the funds are not simply the best performers in their category, especially not over the short term.

For example, Fisher Funds' NZ Growth Fund, which took the prize for the best New Zealand share fund, was the worst performer among the 14 funds in that category in the 12 months to the end of September, but second best when measured over the past five years, returning a solid 15.89 per cent a year, after fees and tax.