AMP has dumped plans to list its NZ wealth arm, upgrading the business from ‘manage for value’ to a ‘mandate for growth’. In a statement released this morning, Blair Vernon, AMP NZ chief, said the IPO slated by the parent Australian business last year has been halted. “In February, AMP CEO Francesco De Ferrari reaffirmed… [Read More…]
Archives for 2019
AFA population explosion as deadlines loom
Authorised financial adviser (AFAs) numbers have soared over the last 12 months to reach almost 2,000 as a regulatory deadline and impending regime change triggered action. The latest Financial Markets Authority (FMA) data published in March has an AFA count of 1,998, representing an increase of about 140, or 7.5 per cent, compared to the… [Read More…]
Fees and feasibility: Kiwi Wealth sets scale example
Kiwi Wealth head of retail, Joe Bishop, has challenged all at-scale KiwiSaver providers to cut fees before government or regulatory intervention forces the issue. Bishop said there was scope for fee cuts across the KiwiSaver industry particularly among large providers that had piled on funds under management without returning scale benefits to members. Last week… [Read More…]
Taylor remake at Pie, Juno
Pie Funds has made major changes at the top of both its funds management and associated KiwiSaver business, Juno. In a senior makeover revealed last week, Mike Taylor, Pie founder, has stepped down as chief investment officer in favour of long-time portfolio manager, Mark Devcich. Taylor remains as Pie CEO and will take over as… [Read More…]
Simplicity: where everything might be a bargain
Sam Stubbs won’t say whether Warehouse founder, Stephen Tindall, would soon stump up fresh capital for Simplicity as rumored last month. But Simplicity will no doubt need a cash injection to fund the group’s empire-expanding ambitions this year. “We’ve got an aggressive plan to move into other financial services markets now we have economies of… [Read More…]
Senior hire from Mercer coincides with Link restructure
The Link Group has merged its ‘operations’ and ‘technology and innovation’ teams and brought the operations units of both its corporate markets – the share registry business – and fund administration divisions together under Paul Gardiner. Gardiner’s new title will be chief operations, technology and innovation officer, according to an internal memo sent to Link… [Read More…]
Study finds ESG at play in sovereign performance
Country-based environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis could identify winners and losers in the sovereign bond universe, new research from Brandywine Global suggests. The study by Brandywine Global senior vice president investment research, Patrick Bradley, found a link between ESG rankings and sovereign bond risk as measured by credit default swap (CDS) rates. Brandywine Global… [Read More…]
First robo flies on day one
NZ’s first free-to-air robo-adviser enjoyed a successful debut with over 1,000 users trialing the system on day one, according to Nikko Asset Management NZ chief, George Carter. Carter said the early response to the Nikko ‘GoalsGetter’ service, which went live last Wednesday, indicated there was latent demand in NZ for online advice to help with… [Read More…]
Post NZ reporting season blues: why local investors will need to be selective
As the dust settles from another NZ corporate reporting season, Harbour Asset Management director, Shane Solly, finds a clear warning for benchmark-huggers in the data There were more misses in the latest New Zealand listed company reporting season (for the December period) than beats against market expectations. This has contributed to earnings forecasts being… [Read More…]
The true costs to investors behind IPOs
Everyone loves a good IPO story. Exopharm, up 175 per cent in the year of listing, last year, and Adriatic Metals, up 188 per cent. Then there was Ardea Resources the year before, up 850 per cent in the year of listing. But such sensational examples mask the real story across the IPO market. According… [Read More…]