The $35 billion ANZ funds house has rejigged its investment line-up, appointing the world’s largest active bond manager to an equities mandate while dropping Tyndall from an Australian shares gig.
In an update released last week, ANZ named global fixed income giant, PIMCO, as the fifth option in an international shares multi-manager roster that also includes long-time incumbents LSV, Vontobel and Franklin Templeton as well as more recent hire, BlackRock.
ANZ replaced MFS with a factor-style BlackRock portfolio in a-then $4.6 billion mandate.
The bank-owned KiwiSaver and retail investment business also uses Northern Trust in a factor-based global shares role for some funds.
According to ANZ fund documents, the PIMCO global shares strategy “uses derivatives to deliver international equity index returns alongside active, less-correlated returns from a portfolio of high quality, liquid international fixed interest assets”.
In addition to its core bond skills, the California-headquartered investment manager, owned by Allianz, offers investors access to a so-called ‘portable alpha’ model that “provides target market exposure, while adding the potential for additional return, or alpha, through a separate investment strategy”.
PIMCO is also the sole international fixed income manager for ANZ.
And the ANZ underlying manager tweaks have also seen Tyndall swapped out for Pendal in an Australian shares portfolio.
Tyndall – then Nikko Australia – picked up an almost $900 million in 2018 as the existing ANZ manager for that asset class, Arnhem Investment Management, closed shop. In 2021 Nikko sold its Australian arm to Yarra Capital Management, which re-adopted the pre-Nikko brand, Tyndall, for the storied investment business.
The Tyndall replacement for ANZ is another historic Australian funds management label.
Pendal traces its roots to the BT funds management origin as far back as 1969 when the business was established in Australia in a joint venture between broking firm, Ord Minnett, and the US-headquartered, Bankers Trust.
After subsequently passing hands through several owners including Deutsche Bank, Principal Global Investors, Westpac then a partial ASX-listed followed by a full-listing (and a rebrand as Pendal – a name first used in 1971 by BT), the fund manager merged with another veteran Australian investment business, Perpetual, in 2023.
This February, ANZ amended its investment philosophy in a rewrite that removed explicit reference to active management while adding a new allocation to emerging markets equities.
George Crosby, ANZ chief investment officer, said at the time: “The refreshed beliefs mean we actively choose how to implement our investments – we can choose active, systematic or passive strategies – but this is about flexibility. We remain active investors.”
However, the largest retail funds management business in NZ – that includes about $21 billion held across three KiwiSaver schemes – has seen significant changes in recent years under head, Fiona Mackenzie, including the exit of most senior veteran investment staff.
ANZ also appointed BlackRock last year for advisory and operational duties while shuttering its approximately $3.5 billion wholesale investment arm.