Speaking to InvestorDaily, Mr Tucker said he was keen to build on the platform that has been developed at Euroz over the past few years – but also to grow some new funds.
Euroz has three subsidiaries: Euroz Securities Limited (a stockbroking firm); Westoz Funds Management (the parent company of the company’s two existing LICs); and the new entity Westoz Investment Management (of which Mr Tucker is executive chairman).
The existing LICs at the company are Westoz Investment Company Limited (WIC) and Ozgrowth Limited (OZG).
While both companies invest in smaller companies, Euroz executive chairman Andrew McKenzie described OZG’s investment style as “more micro-cap into small cap” and WIC’s as “more small cap into mid-cap”.
“We will pursue incremental growth in the WIC and OZG – so they will continue to grow slowly and do the odd [capital] raising here and there,” said Mr McKenzie.
Mr Tucker’s role at Westoz Investment Management will primarily be to grow funds, said Mr McKenzie.
“We felt somewhat limited in our skills to drive it a lot further as quickly as we’d like. Steve was a terrific top level guy that we knew anyway who is absolutely there to drive that initiative,” he said.
For his part, Mr Tucker is tasked with raising awareness about the benefits of LICs among his expansive network on the east coast of Australia.
“They have become very popular across the board, and I think it’s because of the access, the transparency, and the fee structures – these things are pretty interesting to people,” he said.
The FOFA reforms, with their focus on transparency and fees, are also helpful for firms like Euroz that are promoting LICs, he added.
“Advisers are becoming much more comfortable with using things like LICs, using things like ETFs that are listed on the market now that allow people to trade,” said Mr Tucker.
“We think this is the trend, this is actually here to stay, and more and more of these types of structures will be coming up,” he said.
