(Russell.com)

NZ Clients Benefit From Russell's Largest Manager-of-Manager Rating

AUCKLAND, 27 September, 2004 — A new report by Cerulli Associates' concludes that Russell remains the global market leader among manager-of-managers investment firms. This is great news for New Zealand clients who can be confident in the knowledge that Russell has the largest and most experienced group of manager researchers in the world, according to Russell Investment Group NZ Managing Director, Dr Edward Schuck.

Cerulli Associates' new report, The Cerulli Quantitative Update: Global Multimanager¹ Products 2004 shows Russell holding a 22.4% share of the growing $335 billion global manager-of-managers market, including 18% of U.S. manager-of-managers assets. The Cerulli Report™ is based on total assets under management as of 31 December 2003.

The Cerulli Report™ states that, "Russell maintains its position as the world's largest multi-manager by any measure. During 2003, the firm continued its global expansion using its traditional modus operandi: securing a key distribution relationship in a target country, then using that as a platform for generating additional business."

Dr Schuck said Russell's ongoing success in the multi-manager space is due to three important differentiators.

"Russell has the largest and most experienced group of manager researchers in the world. We also have a proven investment track record and a business proposition that allows our clients and partners to focus on their core competencies while delegating the highly specialised task of researching and selecting managers to Russell experts," he said.

In recent years, Russell has expanded its global array of multi-manager investment programs by developing business alliances with leading financial services organisations in major markets around the world.

Dr Schuck said in New Zealand, Russell offers its tailored multi-manager fund solutions to retail investors through a distribution relationship with ANZ Bank.

"We have also broadened our offering to enable institutional investors in New Zealand to access Russell multi-manager products across a wide range of asset classes including large and small cap stocks, bonds, emerging markets, listed property, private equity and hedge funds-of-funds"

Dr Schuck said New Zealand investors, like investors around the world, are concerned about maintaining the highest fiduciary standards while focusing on their need for disciplined and value-added investment solutions.

"This combined need for disciplined advice and objective research has led to record demand for Russell's multi-manager investment services," Dr Schuck said.

The Cerulli Report™ also projects that multi-manager products will continue expanding globally 14% compounded annually through 2008, matching the growth rate posted for the past four years, exceeding US$1 trillion by 2006 and surpassing US$1.3 trillion in 2008. Cerulli Associates says this projection accelerated significantly from last year, when it projected a 10.4% compounded annual growth rate through 2007, but the change resulted from better asset returns from stock markets worldwide as well as dramatic growth in the sizable U.S. market segment.

For its part, Russell continues to set records for assets under management, which have more than doubled in the last five years from US$45.6 billion at the end of 1998 to US$110 billion at present. Russell, which opened its first multi-manager funds in 1980, reached US$1 billion in 1982 and US$10 billion under management by 1991. In New Zealand, Russell advises on more than NZ$14 billion in assets and invests around NZ$1.0 billion for NZ investors in Russell Funds.

^{1 Cerulli considers the term "multimanager" to include assets of both manager-of-managers products and fund-of-funds. Cerulli defines manager-of-managers assets as "assets managed as segregated accounts by multiple subadvisors." Fund-of-funds are defined as "collective investment funds investing in units of other collective investment funds."}