Oceanic Bank and Trust Company Limited has introduced a new exclusive family of mutual funds ” THE OCEANIC STARS FUNDS “.

Bill Thomson, V.P. Investments of Oceanic Bank, presented Oceanic’s new “Stars Funds”, explaining that “Stars” referred to the new funds being managed by only the “Best of the Best” investment managers around the world. Oceanic’s approach involves rigorous monitoring and management of over 4,500 international investment managers. The Stars Funds have all outperformed their benchmarks from inception, March 2000, to the present, largely due to Stars multi “Best of the Best” manager/ multi style approach. It avoids the inherent weakness of “putting all your eggs in one basket” with a single manager. Stars is an umbrella fund with seven sub funds to date: US Large Cap Equity, US Small Cap Equity, International Equity, a Hedge Fund, High Yield Bonds, High Quality Bonds and Money Market. Stars will soon launch a new unique Private Equity Fund that will provide a broader range of investors with access to the previously inaccessible but very attractive investment area.

Oceanic’s investment outlook was also presented as being cautiously optimistic near term in light of the recent events in the United States, but very positive towards equity markets, longer term. Bruce Bell, Oceanic’s Managing Director, has advised investors to review their investment strategies in light of the impact of recent world events. He also likened the current Bahamas Financial Industry conditions to a “Perfect Storm” scenario with new stronger legislation on one side and disastrous market events on the other. He concluded that while the industry may face some rough water in the near future, the longer term outlook for Bahamas Financial Services was very strong.

Mike Whittaker, S.V.P., TCW Investment Management, one of Oceanic’s Star managers, provided a positive outlook given current economic and market conditions. He emphasised that the combination of low interest rates, US tax cuts, low inflation, economic recovery and very high cash reserves would fuel the equity markets over the next three to six months. The Star manager indicated that he was impressed with Oceanic’s new “Stars Fund” approach as it represented the new accepted approach to investment management in the US.