Investment News

Good investing requires real sacrifices, according to Oaktree’s Howard Marks, but you can’t expect to be compensated just for making them. Running to a fairly abbreviated four pages, Howard Marks’ latest memo deals with the “indispensability of risk” – and why investors don’t like taking it. It stems from his perusal of an article in… [Read More…]

Matthew Arnold, Russell Investments NZ director, has left the business after almost five years with the multi-manager and consulting firm. Arnold joined Russell in 2019 from State Street Singapore, where he led the exchange-traded fund arm, replacing Alister van der Maas as NZ country head two years later. The Russell Australasian division saw a leadership… [Read More…]

Challenger investment platform, Flint Wealth, has reverted to a single shareholder with the exit of Harbour Asset Management and Trustees Executors (TE) from the company’s register. Harbour and TE both took about a third each of Flint (via holding entity, Formosa Wealth) late in 2019 with Australian firm, ResearchIP, owning the remainder. Both Harbour and… [Read More…]

NZX Wealth Technologies has made the “first step to a closer collaboration” with sister funds management firm, Smartshares, after taking on new back-office duties for an institutional client. According to a release, the NZX-owned platform is “extending its technology expertise and wealth custody and operational services to Smartshares” – initially for a single institutional client,… [Read More…]

Bank of China NZ (BOC) head of asset management, Mark Ford, departed abruptly last week after a more than six-year stint running the group’s special immigration ‘investor visa’ fund. Ford was made redundant, leaving the now $200 million wholesale fund bereft of asset management expertise, he said. “My removal followed an internal audit report I… [Read More…]

Investment Services Group (ISG) has rebranded its Select KiwiSaver scheme under the banner of sister firm, JMI Wealth. Launched in 2020 with the NZX-owned Smartshares as host, the Select KiwiSaver targeted distribution via associated financial advisers. However, the scheme has struggled to gain much traction, reporting just $10 million or so under management at the… [Read More…]

The NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) has called into question the viability of the government-owned venture investment outfit unless it receives more state capital. In written post-hearing replies to queries raised in the regular parliamentary grilling of the sovereign wealth fund, the NZS noted that its 2023 ‘conviction review’ of NZ Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP) raised… [Read More…]

Purpose Capital edged closer to completing phase one of its impact investing goals in NZ last week after a further allocation to local solar electricity farmer, Lodestone Energy. A syndicate led by Purpose, along with a group of other investors including Fisher Funds (via Jarden Principal Investments), Pathfinder and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) fund,… [Read More…]

State Street is tipping the global exchange-traded fund (ETF) market will expand by up to a quarter this year “and into the future” with Asia-Pacific a key growth region. In its latest annual outlook for the sector, State Street says global ETF assets under management hit a record US$11.6 trillion at the end of last… [Read More…]

UK fund manager, Ruffer, expects a sudden reversal in the smooth conditions that investors have enjoyed. The ubiquity of multi-strategy hedge funds, algorithmic market making and 0DTE options might make it much worse. The “benign free-for-all” in markets can’t continue, writes Ruffer co-CIO Henry Maxey in the 2024 Ruffer Review, and when the factors that… [Read More…]