After a month’s delay, AMP Capital handed over control of its roughly $690 million active New Zealand equities portfolio to Salt Funds Management last week.
An AMP Capital spokesperson confirmed the transition, originally scheduled for the end of March, had gone through last Friday.
Salt was appointed to the role – the biggest single NZ equities mandate put to the market – on March 19, following a three-month manager search by AMP Capital. AMP decided to dissolve its in-house NZ shares team in December 2014.
Paul Harrison, Salt director, said the market would start seeing substantial shareholder notices come through as the manager combined the AMP holdings with its existing portfolio.
Salt, formerly the Westpac/BT in-house NZ shares team, already manages about $700 million in local equities for its ex-employer.
Harrison said Salt would pick up the full AMP NZ shares portfolio under its active mandate, although the reported $690 million figure “might be slightly different after market movements”.
Salt, along with Devon Funds Management and ANZ Investments, were selected as fund manager of the year finalists in the finance industry body INFINZ awards. The winner will be revealed at the INFINZ awards ceremony on May 14.
Meanwhile, AMP has joined the list of ‘licensed managed investment scheme managers’, which currently includes Nikko, Harbour and boutique firm, New Ground Capital.
All NZ fund managers must be licensed under new Financial Markets Conduct Act standards by December 2016.
An AMP Capital spokesperson said licensing entails a number of new duties for managers.
“It’s mainly going to change how we communicate with investors,” the AMP spokesperson said. “For example, we have to change our offer documents [including to new product disclosure statement (PDS) specifications].”