Archives for January 2016

Not since the development of ETFs has there been a potential disruptor in funds management like this. A group of international equities managers has launched a performance-fee-only plus pay-for-research series of funds, with full transparency of holdings and with administrator Fundhost’s first all-electronic application and redemption process. The firm, Atlas Trend, has designed its business… [Read More…]

The Staples Rodway KiwiSaver scheme will officially close its doors at the end of March after earning regulatory approval for a bulk transfer to the SBS-owned Lifestages. Graham Duston, head of SBS wealth management subsidiary Funds Administration NZ (FANZ), said the group expected more than 90 per cent of the approximately 3,300 Staples Rodway scheme… [Read More…]

Shares have underperformed on a risk-adjusted basis for NZ investors over the last two decades, according to a new analysis by actuarial consulting firm Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW). The study, which back-tested three notional portfolios over the 20 years to end December 2015, found that despite an overall favourable period for stock markets, growth-heavy investors… [Read More…]

NZX-listed property manager, Augusta Capital, has beat the 2016 rush to enter the managed investment scheme (MIS) regime, joining the licensed ranks last week. The MIS queue is expected to be hit by a log-jam of investment managers over the next few months in readiness for the December 1 final transition date. All NZ fund… [Read More…]

Morningstar has tested the standard ‘4 per cent rule’ of how much an investor needs in retirement for Australia and New Zealand and found that in the Antipodes expectations are “probably a bit too high”. And the local share market is more volatile, requiring a lower bottom end of the drawdown range for a retiree… [Read More…]

BNP Paribas has talked up New Zealand as an international investment destination in the latest issue of its ‘Quintessence’ magazine. The globally-distributed publication extols the virtues of the NZ investment scene, citing strong governance, recent regulatory upgrades, solid debt ratings, and burgeoning capital markets (spurred on by KiwiSaver) as selling points. According to the report,… [Read More…]

The spectre of a Chinese meltdown has been the hot investment topic of 2016 but is the story a little over-cooked? Nick Dravitzki, Devon Funds Management portfolio manager, reports some cold facts from an icy Middle Kingdom   The daytime temperature in Beijing in January struggles to get into positive figures and as the evening… [Read More…]

The early 2016 stock market falls have been bad, but not quite bad enough, to signal an all-out plunge back into growth assets, according to Stuart Millar, ANZ Global Wealth head of portfolio management. Millar said ANZ, the country’s largest fund manager with about $23 billion under management, scaled back its exposure to growth assets… [Read More…]

Pioneering New Zealand financial technology firm, SuiteBox, has won the right to pitch its wares to some of the world’s largest banks and insurers after being named best-in-category at the second annual KPMG Fintech Innovation Challenge last week. The only Australasian firm to feature in the winner’s circle, ‘virtual office’ provider SuiteBox ,took out first… [Read More…]

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) has joined a group of five other large global institutional investors in backing the launch of a long-term investment index announced last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In a statement, Adrian Orr, NZS chief, said the almost $30 billion fund was considering how to utilise the… [Read More…]