Investment News

Most KiwiSaver default funds fell into the red during the March quarter ahead of a genre-defining government decision on the fate of the sector. The latest Morningstar quarterly KiwiSaver report show default fund returns over the three months to March 31 ranged from -1.1 per cent for the Mercer option to just-above par returns of… [Read More…]

Australian exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider BetaShares has taken on Thom Bentley as its first NZ-based employee. The fast-growing BetaShares had been trying to recruit in NZ since at least 2018 after several fly-in-fly-out forays this side of the Tasman. As reported here, Bentley resigned last week as head of institutional for Smartshares after almost three… [Read More…]

FNZ has wrung out limited relief from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) despite losing on most counts in the almost last round of its final bid to reverse a forced sale of Australian software firm GBST. In a provisional report handed down mid-April, the CMA upheld its November 2020 finding that a merger… [Read More…]

The Israel Institute of NZ lobbied to halt the exclusion of certain banking stocks from the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) portfolio this year, according to recently released documents. In an Official Information Act (OIA) request on April 12, the local Israel association asked for confirmation the NZS had told underlying managers that the decision to… [Read More…]

Michael Rice officially entered the wind-down period of his career last Friday (April 30) with the completion of the sale of Rice Warner, now to be known as Deloitte Superannuation. All but a handful of administrative staff transferred, moving out of the heritage-listed 2 Martin Place office, around the corner and a few hundred metres… [Read More…]

Recently established niche third-party fund marketing firm, Zanoma Investment Partners, has secured a new client for the NZ market with Australian-based sustainable active equities manager Alphinity. In a freshly-inked agreement, Zanoma, headed by Tony Klein, will represent the Alphinity Sustainable Shares Fund (SSF) to NZ investors. Headquartered in Sydney, Alphinity offers a suite of Australian… [Read More…]

Global investment back-office software specialist, Confluence, is starting to hit the radar of NZ firms as the thirst for data analytics and risk management tools intensifies, according to local distributor, Guy Dobson. Dobson, head of wholesale investment services business Dynamique, said the group was in “early stage discussions” with several local managers interested in the… [Read More…]

AMP is on track to offload or outsource its listed equities and fixed income business, departing chief, Francesco De Ferrari, told clients last week. In the wake of aborted attempts to sell first the whole AMP, then part of the fund arm to US-based Ares Management, the company announced plans last Friday (April 23) to… [Read More…]

Smartshares head of institutional sales, Thom Bentley, has left the NZX-owned fund manager after almost three years in the role. It is understood Bentley would soon resurface in a business specialising in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He joined Smartshares in October 2018 to spearhead the NZX funds expansion into the institutional market, targeting KiwiSaver, corporate superannuation… [Read More…]

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has laid out five options for treating ‘intermediaries’ under imminent new financial institution conduct legislation including creating separate duties for regulated advisers. In one of two consultation documents published last week, MBIE is looking to resolve the conflict between the demands of the looming Financial Markets (Conduct… [Read More…]