Perpetual has taken a $6.8 million after-tax hit due to troubled and declining securities in its Exact Market Cash Fund.
Perpetual has taken a $6.8 million after-tax loss in the September quarter due to declining securities within its Exact Market Cash Fund (EMCF), the group announced on Friday.
This is in addition to the $25.8 million loss the asset manager already took to its bottom line from the EMCF last year.
The majority of losses announced last week was mark-to-market, a Perpetual statement to the Australian Securities Exchange said. This means the value of some of the securities in the fund declined but they remain unsold.
The EMCF also took $2 million in after-tax realised losses on its exposure to securities of Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy on September 15.
The EMCF did not have exposure to the recently rescued US banks Wachovia and Washington Mutual, American insurer AIG or Swiss financial services giant UBS, the company confirmed to InvestorDaily.
"Despite the extraordinary recent events... in global financial markets, the portfolio's defensive positioning, high quality securities and large cash component have been successful in limiting the losses," a Perpetual statement said.
EMCF investors are not impacted by the losses, as Perpetual guarantees that investors get returns equivalent to the Bank Bill Index.
EMCF holds 35 per cent in domestic residential mortgage-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities, 6 per cent in overseas banks which is fully hedged, 4 per cent in Australian banks which is partially hedged and 46 per cent cash.
EMCF eliminated its 0.5 per cent sub-prime collateralised debt obligations exposure last year.
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