Funds Management becomes Advantage shareholder

By Mark Reynolds

Another institutional investor has joined the share registry of technology group Advantage, with New Zealand Funds Management acquiring a 6.5 per cent stake in the company.

NZ Funds acquired 1.45 million shares from a subsidiary of Rangatira Ltd and 1.17 million shares from Advantage director Nick Gordon. Mr Gordon will use the funds he has raised from the sale of shares to finance his $2.52 million purchase of 1.5 million shares in Eric Watson's Pacific Retail Group.

Mr Gordon retains an interest in Advantage through a holding in Wiltshire Technology Holdings, a company majority owned by Advantage chairman Evan Christian.

NZ Funds equities manager Tim Mitchell said his company liked the strategic direction of Advantage in the technology sector and believed it had attracted good staff through recent business acquisitions. These included a company specialising in barcode software and computer programmes to manage oil company retail operations.

The NZ Funds acquisition follows Royal & SunAlliance's purchase of a 9.2 per cent stake in the company for $6.6 million last month. That institutional deal was mainly arranged by Sandy Ellis at brokerage DF Mainland.