Hunter Hall loses investment head

Australia’s largest ethical investment manager,Hunter Hall Investment Managementis set to lose its chief investment officer to a large institution and potentially impact on the strong performance turnaround the group has experienced since June.

Group chairman Peter Hall says it is in advanced stages of discussion with an unnamed investment manager to replace Kim Tracey, who has headed up the group’s investment operations since joining in April this year.

Tracey was unavailable this morning to confirm the non-disclosed financial institution she will shortly be joining.

As for the performance of the three Hunter Hall trusts — the Value Growth Trust (VET), the Australian Value Trust (AVT) and the Global Ethical Trust (GET) — each fund has bounced back after experiencing a tough 2002/2003 financial year.

As of yesterday, VGT, AVT and GET have returned 21.9, 20.5 and 12.8 per cent respectively since June in comparison to their respective performances of 2, -8.8 and -3.2 per cent for the year to June 30, 2003, which Hall categorised as “mediocre to poor”.

Regarding Tracey’s departure, Hall told shareholders at its annual general meeting today that while “it may seem strange to announce Kim’s departure before we are able to announce a replacement I feel I owe you as my fellow shareholders a candid disclosure of such an important development,” Hall says.

The group has $715 million in funds under management following a 32 per cent jump in inflows in the year to June 30 and an additional 32 per cent growth in monies over the subsequent five months.