Archives for 2019

A “challenging” presentation from UK-based macro-economic analysis firm, Absolute Strategy Research (ASR), has underscored the dangers facing investors in an era of low interest rates and rising recession risk, according to Andrew Bascand, Harbour Asset Management chief. Bascand said the gloomy analysis, delivered last week in NZ at a Harbour roadshow by ASR co-founder Ian… [Read More…]

Kiwi Investment Management (KIM) has emerged from its shell to engage more actively with the wider NZ wholesale market. KIM, which houses the funds management arm of Kiwi Wealth, has already secured about $50 million in seven wholesale mandates since launching seriously into the arena over the last year or so, according to Peter Verhaart…. [Read More…]

For the third time in the last few years a custodian bank in Australia has tried to change its technology platform with messy results. JP Morgan was the first to try to ditch its system and then back-tracked. The Australian CEO, Jane Perry, left that position shortly after. BNP Paribas was next and lost a… [Read More…]

If an impact fund invests for outcomes that no-one measures is it still an impact fund? The answer is no, according to Rebekah Swan, AMP Capital NZ ESG investment specialist. “If you don’t measure the social or environmental intentional goals the investment is targeting then it can’t, by definition, claim to be an impact fund,”… [Read More…]

More opportunities among value stocks and an increasing disconnect between market sentiment and company fundamentals, particularly for companies focused primarily on Australian demand, are among the highlights for the latest annual reporting season. In its annual review of the reporting season results, including broker and company revisions, and with the aid of more than 150… [Read More…]

This is an announcement from Air NZ: “We have no update at this time.” But it appears that the year-long effort to find a new route for the $1 billion Air NZ superannuation scheme has been delayed; indefinitely. As reported here last year, Air NZ put its KoruSaver scheme out for review in September 2018… [Read More…]

The NZAS retirement scheme has put the $170 million fund out to tender with a master trust shift on the cards. Previously known as the Rio Tinto New Zealand Retirement Fund, the NZAS scheme primarily services workers at the Tiwai Point aluminum smelter in Southland. According to the most-recent NZAS financial statements, NZAS majority owner… [Read More…]

Jason Lindsay, has shifted from a portfolio manager role at the $40 billion Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) fund to Forsyth Barr. Lindsay, who managed the ACC Australasian infrastructure portfolio for the last six years, will join Craig Alexander as co-head of the Forsyth Barr funds management division. Forsyth Barr holds about $300 million in its… [Read More…]

Kiwi Wealth has rebooted its range of retail managed funds launched last year, opening up a digital doorway and a prime-time advertising campaign. The three funds, officially launched last May, offer retail investors the standard choice of conservative, balanced and growth portfolios with a blend of offshore equities and world-wide fixed income assets. As reported… [Read More…]

NZ active managers are poised to regain their outperformance mojo, according to a new AMP Capital paper, pending a “sentiment reversal”. The just-released study argues that the fundamental factors underpinning NZ domestic share managers’ historical benchmark-beating record remain in place despite the more recent period of sub-par performance. Since June 2017, the median active NZ… [Read More…]