Kady Buchanan has departed Nikko Asset Management just two years after joining the business in a senior sales role. In a note to clients, Nikko says Buchanan resigned the group to “take up a role with a competitor” – understood to be Milford. She joined Nikko in March 2023 to replace Sam Bryden, who was… [Read More…]
Investment News
FMA downsizes climate, DIMS compliance
Climate-reporters and small DIMS-issuers have been formally granted some compliance relief in notices stamped by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) last week. Under a well-signalled move, the 200 or so entities captured by the climate-reporting legislation won’t have to provide assurance on downstream ‘scope 3’ carbon emissions until the 2026 financial year. The one-year relief… [Read More…]
Tech-centred Kernel takes to trading by Alpaca
Kernel has selected challenger online broker, Alpaca, to back its just-released US share-trading service launched to existing investors in the manager’s products last week. The win is likely a NZ-first for the US-domiciled Alpaca, which raised US$52 million at the end of April in a ‘series-C’ investor round. Founded by Hitoshi Harada and Yoshi Yokokawa… [Read More…]
Salt finds investors blasé as Trump blasts through 100 days of ‘volatility and confusion’
Investors appear to have under-priced the risk to equity markets of tariffs as the President Trump show wraps up a non-stop 100-day program marked by “volatility and confusion”, according to a new Salt Funds Management paper. The Salt report says even after the recent correction, US share index levels still imply an “unwise assumption” that… [Read More…]
Generate goes for (extra-strong) growth
Auckland-based funds management shop, Generate, has bowed to KiwiSaver member demand for aggressive investment options with the launch of three almost 100 per cent pure growth funds. While the flagship Generate Focused Growth fund already offers a high-octane 95 per cent exposure to equities (including a 15 per cent target tilt to listed property), the… [Read More…]
Platinum founder sells down as merger looms
Storied Australian global equities fund manager, Platinum Asset Management, recorded a milestone moment last week as founder, Kerr Neilson, sold most of his remaining stake in the business to hedge fund operator, L1 Capital, ahead of a potential merger. In a release, L1 Capital confirmed it had acquired “a 9.6% shareholding in Platinum by way… [Read More…]
BCG drops warning as funds industry hits record high
Fund management businesses face fundamental problems despite booking robust growth and profit numbers last year, according to a new Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study. And BCG suggests the solutions will see cost-cutting, consolidation, more exchange-traded funds (ETFs), private asset tilts and distribution shake-outs across the industry. The 23rd edition of the BCG ‘Global Asset Management… [Read More…]
Mercer tipped as ANZ super buyer
Mercer is understood to have acquired control of the circa $550 million ANZ Investments legacy superannuation fund business following a competitive tender. ANZ put its vintage super fund assets on the market late last year after previously bailing out of the wholesale investment game. Between them, the storied super schemes – a group comprising the… [Read More…]
MJW report finds investors over COVID, caught by tariffs, treated with diversification
The COVID crash has officially faded into history, according to the latest Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW) quarterly investment survey, for investors with a five-year memory limit at least. Despite a rough first three months for equity markets this year, the five-year KiwiSaver return figures, for instance, improved markedly quarter-on-quarter as the March 2020 pandemic rout… [Read More…]
Australasia stays sustainable as global investors flee ESG
NZ and Australia have bucked the global trend that saw record high net outflows from sustainable-label funds in the March quarter including a first backward step for the sector in Europe. Data from the Morningstar-owned Sustainalytics confirms a strong global shift away from environmental, social and governance (ESG) styled products amid a US political crackdown… [Read More…]