trading physical gold on disallowed

Getting a grip on gold
By SEAN SMITH
19feb03

AUSTRALIAN share traders are soon to be offered a unique opportunity to get physical with gold.

Fledging Melbourne company Gold Bullion Ltd is finalising plans to launch securities enabling investors to buy and trade physical gold on the stock exchange.
The offer is backed by the London-based World Gold Council as part of its global push to promote new gold-backed investment products capable of increasing demand for bullion.

Gold Bullion is offering a redeemable preference share stapled to a one-tenth interest in a fine troy ounce of gold, held in trust in London by HSBC Bank.

Assuming its prospectus is given the all-clear, the securities will be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, probably after a launch next month.









In a covering note to the document, WGC chief executive James Burton acknowledged that investors in the past had found gold investment to be "a cumbersome and costly process".

"Retail and institutional investors have encountered barriers to entry in the form of difficulties with purchase, storage and insurance," he said.

However, Gold Bullion's proposed offering addresses these shortcomings by allowing investors "to buy, hold and sell gold in a simple and cost effective manner, dealing through established broking channels".

The company is the brainchild of Investor Resources and its founder, former Normandy Mining director Graham Tuckwell.