Investment News

Anglican Financial Care (AFC) has named former head of the Takeovers Panel, Margaret Bearsley, as incoming chief executive set to replace Mark Wilcox in September. Wilcox gave notice last December, “giving the Board time to identify a suitable successor”, according to a letter from AFC chair, Dean Lawrence Kimberley. Bearsley, currently NZ Registered Architects Board… [Read More…]

Fund managers and regulated entities have been granted a one-month extension to hand in their audited annual financial statements due to a pandemic-related bean-counter deficit. In a statement, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) says it would offer “temporary relief to give some businesses additional time to comply with certain regulatory reporting requirements, in response to… [Read More…]

The NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) has been inundated with information requests in the wake of its decision to exclude five Israeli banks, clogging up administrative resources. As reported in March, the almost $60 billion sovereign wealth fund sold down shares in five Israeli institutions – First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, Bank Hapoalim,… [Read More…]

The triple-regulated NZ anti-money laundering (AML) regime has added costs but very little else over its 10-year plus operation with a makeover long overdue, according to Dynamique director, Guy Dobson.   Global law enforcement agencies had a huge win, recently, by breaking into a drug cartel, seizing assets, and locking up many ‘crims’ thus potentially… [Read More…]

The next iteration for the private equity sector, long-time best performer among alternatives, is for general partners to combine the operations of their portfolio companies to boost flagging returns. Karim Khairallah, a senior managing director and co-portfolio manager at Oaktree Capital in London, and François Mann Quirici, a founding partner at Nexus Associates, also in London,… [Read More…]

The long-awaited mega-merger between two global financial services giants, Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW), hit a major snag last week as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to block the transaction. In a statement, the DOJ says it had “filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today to block Aon’s [US]$30 billion proposed acquisition of… [Read More…]

Adopting a robo-advice platform will increase member contributions as well as investment-option performance, while improving diversification, according to a study of French savings plans. While the buzz surrounding its introduction just over 10 years ago has abated, an increasing body of research is building on the value of robo-advice. More than a marketing tool for… [Read More…]

The almost $700 million NZBritannia has added ANZ Investments to its roster, hiring the bank-owned manager to share duties across a range of asset classes with incumbents among a slew of changes at the UK pension transfer specialist. Now rebranded as NZBritannia from the previous Britannia Financial Services, the country’s largest UK pension transfer business… [Read More…]

Francesco De Ferrari, AMP chief, officially ends his lame duck period at the end of June, leaving a gap of little over a month before Alexis George steps into the breach. James Georgeson, AMP chief financial official, would fill the short-term vacancy between the departure of De Ferrari on June 30 and the August 2… [Read More…]

ANZ chief financial officer, Stewart Taylor, has moved temporarily sideways to fill-in as acting managing director funds management for the bank’s $33 billion plus investment arm. A bank spokesperson said Taylor would assume the position at the end of this month in a new role created post the resignation of current director wealth and private… [Read More…]