BlackRock has picked up another large chunk of NZ retirement savings money after winning about $750 million as AMP replaced a third-party manager service previously supplied by ANZ.
In a move confirmed last week, AMP will shift several ANZ-managed portfolios in its KiwiSaver and employer super master trust products to BlackRock strategies in October.
ANZ gave notice to wholesale investment clients in May to exit their holdings by the end of August but AMP, which was the largest single customer, pushed out the deadline slightly.
AMP already uses BlackRock index strategies for most of its investments, however, the ANZ funds will move to active-style portfolios to be christened the ‘Global Select Funds’.
Justin Boyes, AMP general manager customer retail, said in a release: “The new funds will be actively managed with a blend of some index investments, and we are confident given the due diligence process that this will result in improved client outcomes.”
Boyes said AMP considered “several options” before calling on existing partner BlackRock to take over the ANZ duties.
Fees on the new funds would also be lower than the current ANZ-managed versions, which range from about 1 to 1.24 per cent.
As at the end of June, the AMP KiwiSaver and New Zealand Retirement Trust (NZRT) schemes managed about $750 million across four ANZ funds – the vast bulk in the ‘balanced growth’ options.
While the three ANZ-managed diversified funds will transition to the Global Select counterparts, a small listed property portion (about $14 million in total) is destined for a new home, and strategy, in the AMP international shares index fund.
ANZ gave up about $3.5 billion in wholesale money to “focus our efforts” on its retail and KiwiSaver scheme clients, managed funds head, Fiona Mackenzie, said in May.
The bank-owned fund manager flagged a potential tie-up with Mercer and BlackRock last August with several senior investment staff exiting in the aftermath.
However, ANZ has yet to confirm a full-outsourcing of its funds management model. In July this year, though, the approximately $33 billion manager replaced a $4.6 billion global equities mandate previously held by MFS with… BlackRock.