Haka, I did not put any questions to the meeting. Maybe there...

Haka, I did not put any questions to the meeting. Maybe there will be an update after the meeting to clarify any major points of interest to all.

Regarding Orbis MIS, I did a check of significant unit holdings for IEF recently and noted that Orbis and ING now have combined holdings of around thirty seven percent of IEF units (orbis owns 19.44 percent and ING owns 17.14 percent according to their disclosure notices). If Orbis were to increase its holdings to the extent that it becomes a dominant unit holder it would be in a position to influence voting at meetings. Orbis states on its web site that its investment policy is to buy and hold for the longer term in undervalued shares / units so I expect that Orbis will not take a back seat at meetings. Whether the responsible entity will be impacted by this does not seem to be an issue as I doubt that Orbis intends to upset the existing arrangements.

I am investing in IEF mainly as an income stock but at the same time I am endeavoring to reduce the per unit cost of my holding as a safeguard against loss of net unit value due to the credit crisis. I noted that in IEF's update of 11/09/2008 that the total distribution for FY 2009 is expected to remain steady at 10.05 cents per unit. Some other unit trusts (not IEF) have been cancelling distributions to reduce debt and as a result unit values have been reduced on the ASX. This is possibly due to investors loosing patience with non performing "income" investments, plus the hinted uncertainty surrounding the ability to refinance debt falling due.

IEF's debt is said to require refinancing in 2010 (not sure whether this is in FY 2009/2010 or the following FY) so I hope that some further advice of issues surrounding this requirement will become available from IEF before June 2009. The ability to refinance the debt will no doubt become the make or break issue for the IEF unit price on the ASX.