Fund to spend

Press, 11 August 1988, Page 28

Fund to spend

The National Provident Fund would invest about $750 million in equities in the next three to four years, said the fund’s chief executive, Mr John Perham, yesterday. However, Mr Perham made it clear that these investments would not necessarily be in the sharemarket, but could be in companies outside the listed sphere and in property. Investment in the proposed sale of State-owned

assets and investment in State-Owned Enterprises was one area, he said.

He confirmed that the Government’s proposed privatisation of the Bank of New Zealand interested the fund, particularly as it already had a holding. But, with its 80 per cent interest in the Development Finance Corporation, the fund would not want to be tied up in the financial area. Rather the fund would

be seeking quite a wide range of investments to seek both security and stability in earnings for contributors, Mr Perham said.

The fund might have incurred greater losses if it had invested more in the sharemarket before the October crash. But, it was a long-term investor, looking from five to 20 years out rather than worrying about a short-term aberration, he said.