AMP Capital has seen a surge of interest from a range of wholesale investors in its NZ-compliant ‘weapons-free’ passive global investment product, according to the fund manager’s head of distribution, Rebekah Swan. Swan said the recent debate around potential exposure to cluster munitions manufacturers in KiwiSaver default funds – particularly via index products – has… [Read More…]
Investment News
Kiwis get official invite to Australian property fund opening
ASX-listed commercial property fund manager, Charter Hall, has officially opened its doors to New Zealand investors as it seeks A$250 million in a new round of equity-raising for the group’s flagship unlisted Direct Office Fund (DOF). While Charter Hall already counts New Zealanders as investors in its range of Australian commercial property funds (collectively valued… [Read More…]
Brand boosts for Grosvenor, Plan for Life
Grosvenor Financial Services officially switches to a new name this week as it seeks to lift its profile in the consumer market. From today, Grosvenor will take up the ‘Booster’ brand for all its product and services. In a letter to Grosvenor clients, managing director and founder, Allan Yeo, says the rebranding would bring the… [Read More…]
Index funds jump to one-third of US market
The drift to indexing in the US has accelerated over the last three years with passive products now representing a third of the managed fund market, the Financial Times (FT) reported last week. According to the FT report, new figures supplied by Morningstar show passive funds have seen US market share grow from a quarter… [Read More…]
Goldmans Australia sale: the smart guys are getting out
TA Associates, a private equity manager with a penchant for funds management firms, has notched up about US$8 billion in the space following its purchase of the Australian-domiciled business of Goldman Sachs. Why? Coincidentally, Goldmans Australia has about A$8 billion in FUM, over fixed income and Aussie equities. The fixed income strategy is their main… [Read More…]
Declustering KiwiSaver: Vanguard looks for tidy trans-Tasman solution
Vanguard’s mooted ‘cluster-free’ product could appeal to both Australian and New Zealand investors, according to the fund manager’s head of market strategy and communications in Australia, Robin Bowerman. Bowerman said Vanguard is working with its NZ KiwiSaver clients to develop an “acceptable” passive global shares solution that excluded companies associated with cluster bomb and nuclear… [Read More…]
Adminis doubles and triples with new client
In a landmark deal for the Wellington-based investment platform firm, Adminis has signed on Aon as a unit-pricing client. Martin Kay, Adminis chief, said the contract would see the business almost doubling its funds under administration to well over $1 billion and tripling the number of managed funds under its ageis. Under the arrangement, Adminis… [Read More…]
Macquarie platform switch sees NZX replace Aegis
The NZX confirmed last week it had secured Macquarie Equities NZ as a lynchpin client for its recently-acquired investment platform. As reported earlier in August, the Macquarie move to NZX Wealth Technologies came at the expense of the ASB-owned Aegis, which will lose funds under administration of about $1.7 billion (or up to $3 billion,… [Read More…]
McSkimming departs top research role at Russell
James McSkimming, long-standing Russell Investments researcher has left the firm and believed to be headed to a competitor. He was most recently Russell’s head of Australian equities research, a position which chief executive Peter Gunning says will be filled. Before that he was a senior research analyst at the firm, making a total tenure at… [Read More…]
Capacity crunch looms closer as KiwiSaver supercharges NZ shares
New Zealand equity active managers have a much more optimistic view of capacity limits than their Australian counterparts, according a Russell Investments report released last week. The Russell study, which explores the potential effects of KiwiSaver flows for local equity investors, estimates the average active NZ manager capacity limit stood at about 1.7 per cent… [Read More…]