Smartshares is to roll-out four new low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) next month while reorganising its entire product suite. Thom Bentley, head of institutional sales for the NZX-owned fund business, said the four new ETFs – due for launch on July 15 – would join four existing products in a group of ‘core’ funds. The remaining… [Read More…]
Investment News
Dravitzki departs Devon; Morrall boost for Pathfinder; AMP Capital chief goes; Sargon restocks, renames; Juno finds new home
Auckland-based boutique manager, Devon Funds, has shaken up its investment team following the exit of long-time portfolio manager, Nick Dravitzki, last week. Devon managing director, Slade Robertson, said the firm’s chief investment officer, Mark Brown, had assumed Dravitzki’s portfolio management duties on the Dividend Yield Fund. Robertson took over from Brown as portfolio manager of… [Read More…]
Westpac ends an era, and Pendal starts a new one
Westpac Bank has sold its final 9.5 per cent holding in Pendal Group, after the market closed on June 18, sweeping clean its stake in the business. It will continue to withdraw from the $14 billion in assets that Pendal currently manages for Westpac. The Pendal story would make a good book – and, in… [Read More…]
Funds reverse forward in April (but quarterly rear-view remains red)
All but five of the 150-plus funds in the Aon NZ monthly survey universe were back in black during April following an extraordinary market bounce. In a spring tide that lifted most boats, April monthly returns ranged from -3 per cent for the Nikko Options strategy to 14.6 per cent for the Mercer Small Companies… [Read More…]
Russell sees value wake from the dead
Value investors are finally seeing “green shoots” in a style that has lain fallow for over a decade, Russell Investments chief investment officer, Peter Gunning, told a NZ audience last week. In the first of a webinar series replacing the annual Russell NZ conference this year, Gunning said the value factor had flickered into life… [Read More…]
Emission control: why the new ETS could fire up carbon investment options
Carbon-offset investments could see a boost under the new NZ emission trading scheme (ETS) regime that passed into law last week. Paul Harrison, Salt Funds managing director, said the new ETS legislation – currently awaiting Royal Assent – goes further in setting a more realistic market price for carbon lifting the current cap of $25… [Read More…]
AXA IM doubles down on impact – it’s the new black
AXA Investment Managers, which has been in the sustainable investment space for many years, is ramping up its impact investing – the pointy end of ‘sustainable’ – which aims to make a difference to society while still turning a good profit. AXA IM is about to put together a new $500 million impact fund. The… [Read More…]
Supervisor set to lose licence, liquidation looms
Sargon NZ is on track to lose its supervisor licence as it prepares for liquidation. Just-released annual accounts for the NZ company, part of the troubled Australian Sargon enterprise sold to former directors last month, show the firm had breached minimum capital requirements for holding its supervisor licence this March. The Financial Markets Authority (FMA)… [Read More…]
Fertiliser flies as NZ Super gets phosphate friend for legal stoush
A fertiliser industry body has won the right to butt into a looming legal action between the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) and a Western Sahara political activist. In a ruling handed down in the Auckland High Court last Friday, Justice Palmer agreed the Fertiliser Association of NZ could ‘intervene’ in case brought by Fadel Mohamed… [Read More…]
Cheap thrills fund investors
The correlation between low fees and high flows continues to strengthen in the US fund market, a new Morningstar study found, where rock-bottom pricing is pulling more crowds than ever. “Of the $581 billion that flowed into the cheapest 20% of funds and share classes in 2019, most of it went into the cheapest of… [Read More…]