Auckland-based boutique KiwiSaver scheme, Generate, continues to rocket up the rankings, new figures from Australian research house Strategic Insight (SI) reveal.
During the June quarter, Generate funds under management (FUM) jumped by 15.4 per cent – almost double the next-fastest growing competitor, BNZ – to finish the period at almost $460 million.
Launched in the 2013/14 fiscal period, Generate, headed by Henry Tongue, hired a new portfolio manager, Edward Glennie, this March to help cope with the scheme’s rapid growth. However, Glennie has since the left the business, which is now searching for a new equity analyst.
Following the three-month FUM burst, Generate also supplanted Aon NZ as the 12th largest KiwiSaver provider. The $446 million Aon scheme, which offers members access to a range of underlying fund managers including Russell Investments and Milford Asset Management, grew at a much more pedestrian 3.5 per cent in the June quarter, according to the SI numbers.
For the first time the SI quarterly KiwiSaver report identifies schemes outside the top 10, with the NZX-owned SuperLife grabbing 11th place and just over $200 million more than Generate. However, the SuperLife growth-rate over the three-month period of 3.3 per cent was less than a quarter of Generate’s and a shade under the 4 per cent overall KiwiSaver average.
Elsewhere, both BNZ and Milford outpaced top 10 rivals with respective quarterly growth of 8.7 per cent and 8.6 per cent. As at the end of June BNZ reported FUM of about $1.3 billion while Milford hit $875 million.
At the current rate of expansion BNZ could in a year or two overhaul the seventh-placed Mercer scheme, which grew – as per recent below-market trends – at a leisurely 2.5 per cent in the June quarter to rack up about $1.7 billion in FUM.
BNZ was the last major Australian-owned bank to enter the KiwiSaver battleground, officially launching its scheme early in 2013 – almost six years behind most competitors. Previously, BNZ marketed both Axa and AMP KiwiSaver products through the bank network. AMP absorbed the Axa scheme in 2013 following the wider corporate merger of the entities in 2010.
Meanwhile, AMP, which at one time was the third-largest scheme in the land, again reported insipid quarterly growth figures of 1.8 per cent – the lowest of all in the SI survey. In spite of the sluggish performance, the fourth-placed AMP remains about $1 billion ahead of Fisher Funds, which reported FUM of just over $3.6 billion in June (up 3.2 per cent over the quarter).
At the head of the pack, the remaining trio of Australian-owned bank KiwiSaver providers recorded growth at, or above, the overall average. ANZ, ASB, and Westpac, respectively, grew 4, 4.1, and 4.5 per cent in the three months to June 30 to close out the period with $10.4 billion, $7.4 billion, and $4.9 billion in FUM.
While ANZ is unchallenged in top spot, the collective market share of the bank’s three KiwiSaver schemes held steady at 24.6 per cent, down slightly from a one-time high of over 26 per cent.
In total KiwiSaver FUM reached almost $42.3 billion as at June 30, pumped up by just over $1 billion in net flows and $570 million of investment earnings (plus government transfers).