Wall Street Journal Article - 12/27/2000

THREE TECH FUNDS PRODUCE RETURNS DESPITE TURMOIL

By Sara Calian, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

LONDON - In a year when most global technology funds were down in the dumps, a handful pulled off an amazing feat - they actually made money.

Technology funds on average posted a negative return of 28.47% as of Dec. 11, according to Standard & Poor's Fund Services in London.  But there were a few funds sold to Europeans that produced remarkable returns.  The TAIB American Explorer Fund rose 18.12%, the Optima Neptune Fund returned 6.05% and the Dresdner GD Global Technology Fund rose 4.74%, according to Standard & Poor's.

The key to staying above water is flexibility and having cash at the right time.  But the fund managers are the first to admit how hard it was to invest in the midst of a technology tornado.

"This was the worst year we've experienced in technology," says Walter Price, co-manager of the $136 million Dresdner GD Global Technology Fund.  Mr. Price, 52 years old, manages a total of $1.5 billion with Dresdner Bank AG's asset-management unit Dresdner RCM in San Francisco.  He has 28 years of investing experience and co-manages the fund with Huachen Chen.

Mr. Price says he saw how quickly the market was changing in March and raised cash to 30% of the portfolio.  The fund's cash level reached its highest point at 40% in October.  He started to put some of that money to work in November, and the cash position is now down to 22%.

Both the TAIB American Explorer Fund and the Optima Neptune Fund are managed by Juno Madan, head of Neptune Capital Management in New York.  Mr. Madan applies the same investment approach to both funds, combining both long and short-position strategies.  However, the small size of the TAIB American Explorer Fund, which has $20 million in assets, helped propel its performance higher than the $150 million Optima Neptune Fund.

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