Trust makes external Aussie equities play

Trust Companyis aiming to increase its market presence by expanding the external distribution of its Australian equity products following the appointment of formerPerpetual InvestmentsandAllianz Dresdner Asset Management(ADAM) executive, Anthony Sider.

Sider has a brief to push the external distribution of the group’s flagship Australian equities product - the Trust Imputation Fund.

The majority of the fund’s $180 million in assets to date have come through Trust’s internal client network, with only a small proportion of investments being sourced from external investors.

Sider says his main challenge is to raise the group’s profile among advisers within the domestic equities arena.

The will be done, he says, by approaching research houses in order to get the fund rated, after which he will approach dealer groups at the research manager level with the aim of having it added to approved lists - and finally he aims to have it added to the platforms.

“I’ll be bringing the funds management business up to the next level. My main focus will be to take it into the marketplace, specifically to the master funds and wraps,” he says.

Sider will join the group on October 20, having left his role as ADAM head of retail, which he held for near on four years.

Prior to ADAM, Sider had been at Perpetual Investments since 1989 — or as it was known then, Perpetual Funds Management — working in their private client division.

Speaking on his departure from Perpetual in late 1999 Sider says, “The business became fully established and more like a factory, and I mean that in a nice way, but by my very nature I needed more than just a nine to five, Monday to Friday type of existence.”

“Once systems, processes and people are in place most businesses tick over, and you’re left to tweak the margins,” Sider says.