CFS 452 fund beats benchmark in first year

TheColonial First State(CFS) Wholesale 452 Australian Share Fund, offered through an alliance between CFS and 452 Capital, has provided a 21.7 per cent net return in its first year, coming in at 9.1 per cent above its benchmark.

The retail version of the fund, which is offered through CFS’ platform FirstChoice, has provided a 29.3 per cent net investment return.

Under the alliance, retail investors can only access 452 Capital as a single manager through CFS retail funds.

The Colonial First State FirstChoice 452 fund also received the only ‘AAA’ rating awarded to an Australian equities manager by international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.

CFS also announced recently that the FirstChoice platform has $5 billion in funds under administration, less then two years after its launch in May 2002.

CFS general manager, distribution, Richard Nunn says, “There is no doubt FirstChoice has led the market to a new level of competitiveness in the platform space and we continue to focus on being the best of breed.”

“Our mandate structure means we can provide higher levels of service to our investors than any other provider in the market with very competitive pricing.”

FirstChoice offers over 50 investment options including both single manager and multi-manager portfolios, across investment, personal superannuation and allocated pensions.

FirstChoice was enhanced in February 2003 to include new manager options and a management fee rebate, and further improvements are planned for later this year.