Archives for 2019

The NZ government could force the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) fund to sell down $1 billion of fossil fuel-related investments, a parliamentary committee concluded last week. In a thinly-veiled threat, the Education and Workforce Committee review of the ACC ethical investment policies says the $45 billion fund has an obligation to use its “substantial market… [Read More…]

The NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) expressed concern about “several key aspects” of the new $300 million government venture investment initiative, document released under the Official Information Act (OIA) reveal. In a letter to Finance Minister Grant Robertson this July, NZS chief, Matt Whineray, notes the proposed short timeline to establish the fund, its tax structure,… [Read More…]

Pie Funds has shuttered its $30 million Multi Strategy Fund just two years after launch following a run of poor performance that saw it down about 13 per cent over the last 12 months. In a letter to investors, Pie chief, Mike Taylor, says the call to close the Multi Strategy product was “hugely disappointing… [Read More…]

Incumbent default KiwiSaver providers are closely-divided on the appropriate investment settings for the auto-enrolled but, on balance, lean to the balanced fund approach, just-released submissions reveal. Of the eight default providers that have published submissions on the KiwiSaver review proposals, four – ASB, Fisher Funds, Kiwi Wealth and Westpac – favour the balanced fund option… [Read More…]

Good financial advice can add more than 5 per cent each year to the wealth of NZ investors, a new Russell Investments study has shown. The Russell ‘2019 Value of an Adviser Report’, released at the SIFA Christchurch conference last weekend, is the first NZ iteration of a similar report the firm has published in… [Read More…]

Frank Russell would be turning in his grave. Private equity owner TA Associates has hired Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of Russell Investments, putting the US$400 billion-odd asset manager and former global asset consultancy on the block, again, according to London’s Financial Times. The newspaper said last week: “A sale of the money manager… [Read More…]

Institutional investors know a good thing when they see it, according to Kurt Lemke. Lemke, Infrastructure Partners Investment Fund (IPIF) senior adviser, told a NZ audience last week that there is a “deep, dark ocean” of investors who have a strong preference for assets “based on real stable cashflows”. He said large institutional investors tend… [Read More…]

Ahead of its launch of a proposed ‘Long-Term Investment Institute’, Martin Currie, the Edinburgh-based international equities house, has produced an interesting paper describing the strong link between long-termism and sustainability. There are differences in the two concepts, too. The paper, ‘How Asset Owners Can Drive Sustainability’, written by David Sheasby, Martin Currie’s head of stewardship… [Read More…]

After more than a quarter of a century leading the now $45 billion Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) investment fund, Nicholas Bagnall is starting again… but from the top. As revealed last week, Bagnall is walking away from a job he successfully toiled away at for 26 years to launch his own shop under the Te… [Read More…]