Harbour Asset Management is to shift registry functions to Apex from Trustees Executors (TE) as the incumbent provider exits the investment administration business.
Ruari McGregor, Harbour chief operating officer, said the move also aligns the back-office service with the BNZ and Hunter funds that also fall under its purview.
Following its inclusion in the FirstCape conglomerate last year, Harbour took on responsibility for the $6 billion or so of BNZ KiwiSaver and investment funds while it acquired the global fixed income Hunter in 2021.
McGregor said Harbour put out a request-for-proposals (RFP) for the registry function across all the fund businesses last year.
“As a result of that process, we have selected Apex as the registry provider for Harbour funds, as well as BNZ Investment Services Limited and Hunter funds,” he said. “This choice allows us to streamline back-office operations by consolidating registry providers across all of our schemes and funds. We expect the transition to be complete before the end of the year.”
With about $9 billion under management, Harbour was the largest remaining registry client for TE after the recent departures of Fisher Funds and Westpac – the former to Apex and the latter to an in-house service.
And last week TE confirmed plans to shutter the registry arm after selling its custody, unit-pricing and fund accounting business to Apex last July. In February last year, TE also sold its wealth management division to Perpetual Guardian.
TE booked almost $41 million profit on the two transactions, comprising close to $19.2 million cash, $18.7 million of loan receivables and about $3.9 million of estimated earn-out provisions, according to the latest accounts.
Mathew Denny, TE people and culture manager, said the registry closure would impact three clients and a number of staff.
Denny said TE and the registry clients would “be forming project groups to schedule migration dates after discussions about what timeframes will be compatible for the likes of their preferred new provider (as an example of what will go into the planning)”.
“It’s really important to the legacy of our registry operation that these transitions occur with precision,” he said.
However, Denny said only a “limited number” of permanent TE registry jobs were “potentially at risk taking in to account employees transferring to other organisations”.
TE uses the Bravura Sonata system to manage registry.
Apex (formerly MMC) and MUFG (formerly Link) remain as the two major competitors in the NZ registry game.
The registry closure marks the end of a rapid reshaping of TE following the resignation of former chief, Ryan Bessemer, late in 2023.
Rob Russell, TE chair, said in a statement that the 144 year-old, Wellington-headquartered company would now focus on “delivering high-quality corporate trustee and licensed supervision services for the long term”.
“As a business, we see what is currently on offer to our clients in the market and feel we can add better value,” Russell said. “This is where we will be focusing the business moving forward.”
TE reported a net profit after tax of $2.2 million on $26 million of revenue from its core supervisory and corporate trustee operations for the 12 months to September 30 last year: the now ‘discontinued’ wealth and investment administration divisions delivered a combined net profit after tax of $3.2 million for the same period.
The group is ultimately owned by Sterling Grace, a vehicle controlled by the Switzerland-based, John Grace.