The $25 billion plus ANZ Investments has lost its second senior funds management staff member to a boutique in less than a year following the departure of John Middleton last week.
Middleton, head of ANZ Australian equity research since 2014, will take up a new portfolio manager position with Mint Asset Management. Last August, then ANZ head of Australian equities, Mark Brown, announced a move to Devon Funds Management as chief investment officer – a role he assumed this January.
ANZ, the country’s largest privately-owned fund manager, has yet to replace Brown.
The Auckland-based Mint has been on a growth spurt of late with a few wholesale mandate wins including from iwi funds, KiwiSaver schemes and charitable trusts.
For example, the BNZ KiwiSaver scheme is currently shifting across its $170 million Australasian equities portfolio to Mint and Nikko Asset Management from the Russell NZ shares fund, which features Devon and Harbour Asset Management as underlying managers.
It is understood Mint has also recently picked up Trust Waikato’s roughly $20 million Australian equities mandate from incumbent, ANZ.
Middleton joins the Mint investment team of five headed by chief investment officer, Paul Richardson. Before taking up the ANZ role Middleton was a senior analyst at AMP Capital NZ.