News Round Up

Macquarie says that the closing date for the Titan 2 hedge fund is being extended for another four weeks until December 11.

One of the features of the fund is that investors can borrow money to leverage into the investment. The borrowing rates, set last week are 9.07% fixed and 8.38% floating. However, as the offer is being extended they will be reset one week prior to the new closing date.

Advisory business tough
Dorchester Pacific reported a solid increase in profit for the six months to September 30 and says that its two largest divisions Dorchester Finance and SAI Life continued to trade very positively.

The group reported a 10% increase in tax paid profit of $1.61 million.

However, the advisory businesses of Direct Broking and Sterling Portfolio Management did not achieve budgeted results. The Direct Broking performance related mainly to low Stock Exchange trading volumes. Direct Broking has increased its market strength by employing additional staff from the DF Mainland operation during October.

Dorchester has spent considerable time and effort developing Sterling (formerly Harts) since it bought the business a year ago and it anticipates that the next 12 months will show improvement.

The group's sharebroking and advisory businesses made a loss of $296,656 in the six month period compared to a $362,880 profit in the corresponding period last year.

FAI debenture offer
Hanover Group subsidiary FAI Finance has launched a $100 million debenture to raise money to fund further growth in the company's loan portfolio.

"The loan book is increasing at such a rate that we need to find additional sources of funding," Hanover Group chief executive Kerry Finnigan says.

A minimum deposit of $1,000 will be accepted and invested for a fixed term bearing interest of up to 8.25% per annum for a 2-year term deposit. A choice of interest payment options will be offered to investors.