Investment News

Fund manager corporate action hit another high across the Tasman last week as a buyer loomed into frame for the AMP Capital listed investments business and Nikko sold down its Australian operations to a boutique firm. According to Australian media reports, ASX-listed financial services firm Challenger was kicking tyres on the AMP Capital public equities… [Read More…]

Global index provider MSCI will roll out a series of ‘solutions as a service’ (SaaS) created with Microsoft, aiming at the institutional investment market. In a release last week, MSCI says its new ‘Investment Solutions as a Service’ offer will launch this year in key areas: indexing; data management; analytics; and, environmental, social and governance… [Read More…]

About 400 more financial advice entities were cleared for take-off over the last four weeks, bringing the fleet of regulated businesses to about 2,600 just days before the new licensing regime goes live. According to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), as at last Friday it had approved some 1,636 transitional licences and 943 authorised bodies,… [Read More…]

Simplicity is to update disclosure documents following an index screening mishap in an underlying Vanguard global bond fund that likely leaves investors exposed to some controversial holdings. In a February note to investors in the Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index Fund, Vanguard says it “recently discovered that some entity structures, including non-listed companies, are… [Read More…]

The Australasian asset management industry has received a gender diversity boost this week with the launch of a new high-profile group looking to grow the influence of women in the sector. According to a release, the Australia and NZ chapter of the Bloomberg Women’s Buy-side Network (BWBN) “aims to inspire next generation investors, elevate female… [Read More…]

The NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) has put new money in two US alternative asset strategies including a hedge fund operated by legendary firm Citadel and a direct private equity play in the communications infrastructure market. While the US$50 million Citadel move was revealed last December, the latest external manager update shows US niche private equity… [Read More…]

Australian corporate loan originator and fund manager Metrics Credit Partners has opened a portfolio investment entity (PIE) vehicle – the first offshore-based product for the Sydney firm. The Metrics Multi-Strategy Private Debt (NZ) Fund is open to wholesale investors only but managing partner, Andrew Lockhart, flagged the launch of a retail PIE – either in… [Read More…]

Harbour Asset Management will convert its approximately $250 million quasi-passive NZ shares fund into a full-blown index-tracker in a move that more than halves the fees and signals surrender on the previous factor-tilt approach. However, Craig Stent, Harbour portfolio manager, said the firm had already aligned the NZ Equity Advanced Beta Fund closely to the… [Read More…]

Bevan Graham has flagged inflation concerns in his first formal analysis penned as economist for new employer, Salt Funds Management. However, Graham, who quit as managing director of AMP Capital NZ last August, says in his inaugural Salt ‘Global Outlook’ that while “there is a heightened risk of resurgent inflation over the next year or… [Read More…]

The KiwiSaver sector verged on $80 billion at the end of last year, buoyed by bumper markets and regular drip-feed flows from members, data from research house Plan for Life (PFL) reveals. But while the total KiwiSaver market was up 7.6 per cent to more than $79 billion for the quarter only one of the… [Read More…]