NZ investors will have access to one more international fixed income strategy with the imminent launch of a fund managed by US firm, Allspring Global Investments – albeit only in Australian unit trust format for now.
Australian multi-affiliate business, Bennelong Funds Management, has been tapped to distributed the Allspring Global Income Fund on both sides of the Tasman.
“Bennelong will initially launch an Australian unit trust for New Zealand investors to access, and will consider adding a portfolio investment entity (PIE) structure in the future,” a spokesperson for the said.
Earlier this year JP Morgan Asset Management released a global bond fund in wholesale PIE form, adding to an increasingly diverse range of international fixed income choices for NZ investors. Melville Jessup Weaver, for instance, covers 13 ‘core’ global bond managers in its quarterly survey, although three are different versions of PIMCO-managed strategies.
Allspring emerged out of the sale of the asset management arm of US bank, Wells Fargo, in 2021 for US$2.1 billion to private equity firms GTCR and Reverence Capital. Reverence also holds a minority stake in Russell Investments.
In 2022, the manager also hired Andy Sowerby as head of client group in the Asia-Pacific region, later bumped up to lead the international client group.
Sowerby is familiar to investors in this part of the world after a stint as Australia and NZ head of Legg Mason, the multi-affiliate business bought by Franklin Templeton in 202.
He said in a release that the Allspring global income fund “provides broad diversification by actively allocating across the global fixed income universe including the investment grade credit and high yield sectors”.
“Our flexible, dynamic multi-sector approach is different from strategies with more static allocations and fewer exposures, and to strategies managed to three or five-year macroeconomic themes.”
Allspring manages about US$600 billion with the majority (US$460 billion) in fixed income assets.
Prior to the Allspring deal, Bennelong represented seven boutique firms including an arrangement with catastrophe bond manager, Leadenhall, inked last year.
Also last week, the global equity business launched by former Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) chief investment officer, Nicholas Bagnall, hit a new milestone after reaching $500 million under management in its PIE fund.
Bagnall formed Te Ahumairangi Investment Management in 2019, initially with an almost $2 billion ACC global equities mandate before opening up a retail PIE in 2021.
A spokesperson for the Te Ahumairangi said the group now has about $1.8 billion including the ACC mandate the “moves around a bit due to strategic asset allocation”.
“Our public fund is at about $515 million having enjoyed good support from a bunch of wholesale investors including Generate, Octagon, Castlepoint as well as a number of trusts, iwi, high net worths,” the spokesperson said.
The Bagnall-managed fund is also available direct and inside a KiwiSaver via InvestNow as well as on other platforms.
For the three years to the end of March, the Te Ahumairangi fund was the top-ranked international equities single-sector strategy in the Morningstar KiwiSaver survey, reporting an annualised net-of-fees return of almost 17.7 per cent.
Elsewhere, the NZX-owned QuayStreet Asset Management picked up the diversified growth fund manager of the year gong at the 2025 INFINZ awards last week.
The prize sponsored by Chapman Tripp, the sole funds management category in the INFINZ line-up, recognises managers with “strong risk-adjusted performance over the previous five calendar years and across diversified growth portfolio”, according to a QuayStreet release.
Returns are “analysed on a risk-adjusted basis and after fees, while qualitative factors include the strength of the team, investment process, portfolio management, risk controls, and fees”, the statement says.
QuayStreet was also crowned Morningstar KiwiSaver manager of the year in 2025 for the second time in succession.
The INFINZ judging panel comprised: Melville Jessup Weaver principal, Ben Trollip; NZ Local Government Funding Agency chief, Mark Butcher; and, Maaike van Tol, NZ Superannuation Fund portfolio design director.
Among 16 categories in total, INFINZ also named Mark Tume as the recipient of the Māori leadership in finance award.
Tume, of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Maru ki Taranaki iwis, has spent more than 20 years in various senior executive and governance roles in financial services across Australia and NZ.
Currently, he also serves as director for a host of firms including ANZ NZ, Infratil, Precinct Properties, Booster and chair of Te Atiawa Iwi Holdings.