Nothing suspicious in hefty slices of Pie says fund’s client manager

HEIGHTENED SUSPICIONS following publicity of David Ross’s alleged Ponzi scheme have led to more questions being asked of one North Shore fund manager, thanks to its surprisingly high returns.

Pie Funds Management, run by Mike Taylor, has posted the kind of returns over the past few years that Ross was claiming to his clients, and that’s led to close questioning by prospective investors, says Pie’s client manager Thom Bentley.

Pie specialises in investing in higher risk, smaller company shares in New Zealand and Australia, through its Australasian Growth and Australasian Dividend funds.

The three-year annualised return for its growth fund is just shy of 17 per cent per annum, and since its launch in 2007, it is up by more than 160 per cent. Both funds have delivered returns of around 47 per cent in the past 12 months.

Bentley said the caution of investors was understandable, and Pie would be doing a series of freeto-the public workshops focusing on how to pick trustworthy people to look after your money.

But distrust of fund managers is not holding Pie back, said Bentley. Pie had grown funds under management from $23 million at the start of the year to $75m today.

That has led Pie to close the Growth fund to new investments.

‘‘If it was a Ponzi scheme we wouldn’t have closed it to new money,’’ Bentley joked.

After several frustrating years, when good performance was not followed by a deluge of money, Taylor became very frustrated that people like Ross and the finance companies had been able to attract such large amounts of money when legitimate fund managers were struggling to get investor backing.