Just a handful of sectors have driven overall market dividend growth in the last seven years, according to Russell Hogan, managing partner of the Edinburgh-based Dundas Partners. Hogan, on a whirlwind tour of NZ last week, said total share dividends paid out by the world’s biggest companies jumped from US$1 trillion in 2012 to about… [Read More…]
Archives for 2019
INFINZ names award finalists, hits record membership
A familiar trio of fund managers fill the finalist slots for the annual INFINZ awards scheduled for May 22 in Auckland. While last year’s INFINZ share manager of the year, Harbour Asset Management, is absent from the 2019 short-list, the three contenders have all been either winners or finalists in the long-running industry awards. Mint… [Read More…]
Why KiwiSaver could beat property for next-gen investors
KiwiSaver will be the cornerstone asset for many New Zealanders as the first rung on the property ladder inches ever higher, according to Joe Bishop, Kiwi Wealth head of retail. Bishop said a new Kiwi Wealth investment survey due out tomorrow found many New Zealanders – particularly younger cohorts – were increasingly shut out of… [Read More…]
Climate, trust, social media feature in top 10 ESG targets for investors
AMP Capital has compiled a list of 10 environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues tipped to top investor agendas over the year ahead. The AMP Capital ESG watch-list ranges from wide-angle climate change concerns down to tightly-focused industrial problems such as the use of child labour in cocoa production. According to the ESG paper, business… [Read More…]
Government moots extending bank/insurer conduct rules to KiwiSaver, DIMS et al
The government could subject a wide range of financial institutions including KiwiSaver providers to proposed conduct regulations that emerged last week in response to recent bank and life insurer investigations. An options paper released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) late in the week lays out a series of measures designed to… [Read More…]
A half of two quarters (and why investors need to play the long game with bonds)
The March quarter saw active management pay off in half of the asset classes tracked by Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW). According to the researcher’s latest investment survey, the median manager outperformed over the March quarter in seven of the 14 MJW asset categories. The result marked an improvement on the December quarter where the median… [Read More…]
NZX targets June launch for new iShares suite
The NZX-owned Smartshares has confirmed it will partner with the world’s biggest fund manager to roll out a new batch of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As reported here last month, the NZX has struck a deal with the US$6.3 trillion BlackRock to badge a range of US-based manager’s iShares ETFs under the Smartshares banner. Smartshares chief,… [Read More…]
Māori fund business aims high with low-cost offer
IwiInvestor has moved to a fully-outsourced passive funds management model as it seeks to carve out a $1 billion plus niche as a low-cost investment provider to Māori-owned entities. Debra Birch, who took over as IwiInvestor executive chair in February 2017, said the group – a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tūwharetoa-associated Lake Taupō Forest Trust… [Read More…]
Survey finds strong ESG influence in Australasia
Australasian institutional investors are more likely to award a mandate based on a manager’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) record than global peers, a recent survey has found. Madhu Gayer, BNP Paribas Securities Services investment analytics and sustainability manager, said 64 per cent of Australian and NZ institutional investors had selected a manager using ESG… [Read More…]
Northern Trust’s new PE admin strategy goes open architecture
Northern Trust is in discussions with a strategic partner to help build what it believes to be a “game-changing” platform for its blockchain technology. Northern Trust was the first of the global custodian banks to go live with blockchain technology for private equity two years ago. According to Peter Cherecwich, Northern Trust president of Corporate… [Read More…]