AMP suffered a horror annual run in the NZ retail funds market as year-on-year gross inflows fell 16 per cent during the 12 months ending March 31, new data from Australian research house Strategic Insight (SI) reveals.
Unsurprisingly, the AMP NZ financial services arm (not to be confused with AMP Capital) was bottom of the pack for net growth over the 12-month period, eking out an annual 2.6 per cent increase in funds under management (FUM) compared to the average 11.3 per cent.
“Most companies reported significant increases in their funds under management over the past year with double digit percentage growth posted by BNZ (31.7%), Milford (20.7%), Booster (20.1%), ASB (16.9%), Kiwi Wealth (15.2%), Fisher (14.4%) and BT / Westpac (11.4%),” the SI report says.
The beleaguered AMP NZ distribution group was hit by both collateral reputational damage from the Australian Royal Commission and the on-again-off-again (now off again) plans to sell or list the business during the 12 months covered in the SI data.
However, over the March quarter AMP saw retail FUM growth (comprising net flows and investment returns) bounce back a little to 5.6 per cent – not the worst (which was Westpac at 5 per cent) but still below the quarterly market average of 6.6 per cent.
Booster was the biggest winner during the three months to March 31, posting net growth of 10.6 per cent – the only provider to hit double digits for the period – as the boutique edged up its market share 0.1 per cent to reach 1.7 per cent.
For the 12 months to March 31, ASB recorded the biggest market share gains, rising 0.7 per cent to 15.1 per cent, followed by Milford (up 0.5 per cent) and BNZ (0.3 per cent).
AMP shed 1 per cent to finish the annual period with 11.4 per cent market share (or $11.6 billion), which still holds it firmly in place as fourth-largest by retail FUM in NZ.
The fifth-ranked Fisher Funds reported retail FUM of almost $6.5 billion, about 6.4 per cent market share, in a quarter that saw it pull slightly ahead of Milford Asset Management (6.1 per cent) after ceding ground earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, front-running ANZ held its market share steady at 26.2 per cent ($26.6 billion) quarter-on-quarter despite giving up 0.6 per cent for the 12-month period.
Overall, gross inflows dropped 10.7 per cent in the March 2019 quarter (compared to the same period last year) but jumped 9.1 per cent over the 12 months, the SI figures show.
“Significant annual Inflow growth was experienced by Generate (59.3%), Milford (35.0%), ASB (22.1%), BNZ (16.6%) and Fisher (12.8%),” the SI report says.
The NZ retail fund market has seen annual gross inflows jump from about $7 billion in 2010 to more than $26 billion over the 12 months to January this year, according to SI data.
While the growth of KiwiSaver has driven most of the massive increase in retail money flows during the last 10 years, non-superannuation funds have also posted respectable growth.
The KiwiSaver market grew almost 17 per cent in the 12 months to March 31 to reach $56.7 billion as other managed funds hit $38 billion, up 6.2 per cent for the year.
In total, total NZ retail FUM bounced back to almost $102 billion after experiencing a dramatic December quarter slump. After breaching the $100 billion mark for the first time last September, the latest SI report shows NZ retail FUM fell to $95.5 billion at the end of last year as investment markets tanked.