Ausbil takes small caps to mums and dads
Boutique investment group Ausbil Dexia will allow retail investors direct access to the underlying stocks within its wholesale Emerging Leaders Fund after today announcing plans to launch an exact version of the offering via a $100 million listed investment company (LIC).
The Emerging Leaders LIC will issue up to 50 million stapled securities at $2 each, as well as one stapled option, exercisable at $1 between June 2006 and June 2008.
The wholesale trust has returned an impressive 22.3 per cent per annum since its inception in 1998.
Ausbil chief executive Reub Hayes said the LIC would increase the options for investors wanting small caps exposure, with the wholesale trust to be capped over the next few years once it reaches $750 million in funds under management.
“The wholesale trust is pulling in an average $1 million a day and presently stands at $300 million in funds under management,” Hayes said.
Hayes said the Ausbil had been patient and avoided launching the LIC along with the horde of other LIC issuers that floated offerings in late 2003 and early 2004.
“It’s quiet different to the environment last year when there were a rush of LIC’s hitting the market. We didn’t want to get involved at that time so we bided our time,” he said.
The LIC’s objective is to outperform its benchmark - 70 per cent the S&P/ASX Mid Cap 50 Accumulation Index and 30 per cent the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index - by three per cent over rolling three year periods.
Ausbil will limit its management fees to a base fee of one per cent per year and a 15 per cent outperformance fee, which will only payable if the annual return is positive and any under-performance has been recouped.
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