HSBC adds retail small companies fund
AustraliaHSBC Asset Managementhas expanded its retail unit trust range to include an Australian Small Companies Fund, following demand from the group’s existing retail customers.
“We’ve had a wholesale small companies fund for about 14 years and that has been a good performer. So there was the demand to offer a retail fund, and with the wholesale fund having a minimum $50,000 investment, the retail offering gives much broader access,” HSBC Australian Equities senior investment manager Richard Sharp says.
According to Sharp, the current economic environment and good performance rate of the new retail fund’s underlying fund, the HSBC Premier Australian Small Companies Fund, makes it a good time to launch a retail Australian small companies product.
“The 10 year track record of the new retail fund’s underlying portfolio to November 30, 2001 is 18.8 per cent per annum. This return exceeded the benchmark Standard and Poor’s/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 10.4 per cent per annum,” Sharp says.
The Australian Small Companies Fund can be accessed by retail investors with a minimum of $1000 and sits alongside the existing Imputation Growth and Active-Growth Australian equity options also offered by HSBC.
HSBC product manager Graeme Hall says the fund has been given 12 months to reach a target of $4 million in funds inflows. He says the conservative target takes into consideration the lag time of getting onto adviser’s recommended lists.
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