(I = Interviewer, DM = Darrell Mercer)
I:What are the main areas that you invest in?
DM:We invest in a number of different areas … to try and, as I said earlier, to keep the overall spread of investment right. And they really start from the lowest risk asset, which is cash, and then we introduce other asset classes that have different risk and return profiles. So as one is prepared to take on a bit more risk, then obviously one is going potentially to get some more return. So, moving up the scale of risk we go from cash to fixed-interest securities, where in effect the client will be lending their money to either a government or a company in return for a fixed rate of return, with the view that capital will increase over a period of time. We then look at, um, index-linked – i.e. linked to the rate of inflation – securities. Equities will be the next level of risk – an equity being a stock or a share – where you're buying part of a company, and obviously as the company performs better, the price of that share should increase. We then look at slightly more esoteric or different areas of investment to give some return that's not linked to equity returns … to share returns … for instance, commercial property is an area where one can achieve a fairly good income return, but you're investing long term into bricks and mortar – something that you can see … something that's slightly more safe. We also look at, er, commodities … so looking at precious metals either gold or platinum. We look at agriculture, which has become an interesting area of development over the last 20 years. And then we have the final asset class we call our alternative investments, and they can be either hedge funds, which invest in lots of different areas, or something that's called absolute return funds, where the manager will invest money across a whole wide range of areas with the view to giving small incremental elements of return over a reasonable period. And as I said earlier, we try and combine those asset classes to get the best level of risk and return.