By Lynn Bolin

As a result of the imminent closure of asset management group Quaystone ltd, Nedcor Retail Investments will be announcing a number of fund manager changes to its own funds, several of which have been managed by individuals at Quaystone.

Nedcor (NED) has outsourced the management of many of its funds to selected individuals at several asset management groups, which it calls its "best of breed" strategy.

Since March last year Quaystone has managed several Nedcor funds, including the Value Fund, Resources Fund, Income Fund, Intellectual Capital Fund, Emerging Companies Fund and Selected Opportunities Fund.

Reassuring investors in its funds on Thursday, Head of Nedcor Retail Investments Dave Macready said that, ahead of the closure of Quaystone, the Nedbank funds would continue to be managed "diligently" by the individual managers at Quaystone, in accordance with the funds' existing mandates.

"Due to these developments at Quaystone we will be announcing a number of exciting fund manager changes over the coming weeks, significantly bolstering our stable and consolidating our unique 'best of breed'

investment managing position," he announced.

"In each instance we have appointed an individual investment specialist whom we feel is best suited to implement the specific fund's investment mandate, irrespective of which asset management house he or she works for.

"We firmly believe that one of the benefits of this strategy is the fact that we are not tied to ne asset management house. In fact, it allows us the freedom to transfer investment mandates when performance or circumstances dictate."

I-Net Bridge 29 April 2004