Another Australia-based manager has jumped on the PIE-wagon with the launch of a global equities product built for the NZ market.
The sustainability-focused Pella Global Generations Fund was released in portfolio investment entity (PIE) format last week by local fund-hosting market leader, FundRock.
It is understood that the Pella PIE has been seeded by a KiwiSaver provider to fast-forward entry into the NZ market.
The Australian concentrated global shares manager was founded in 2021 by a pair of former Pengana portfolio managers – Jordan Cvetanovski and Steven Glass.
Ryan Fisher and Ronald Yu, who worked alongside the duo at Pengana, also joined the Pella team.
According to documents for the Pella PIE, the manager aims to “consistently generate excess returns by creating a diversified portfolio of highly cash flow generative companies with favourable outlooks that are trading at attractive valuations”.
In practice, the portfolio – that follows a process designed by Cvetanovski dating back to 2005 – holds between 30 to 50 stocks out of a universe benchmarked to the MSCI All Country World Index.
The firm also has a responsible investment overlay that takes into account ESG integration, exclusions, sustainability metric, stewardship and ‘norms-based’ screening.
In its fund update, Pella says the negative-screening
“excludes several activities that are included in the benchmark such as fossil fuel mining; transportation; weapons; alcohol; casinos; and companies rated CCC by MSCI”.
Carrying an annual management fee of 0.85 per cent (with a 0.25 per cent buy/sell spread), the Pella PIE features FundRock sister company, Apex, as administrator and registrar with BNP Paribas Fund Services as custodian and Public Trust in the supervisory role.
Since inception in January 2022, the Pella Australian unit trust returned an annualised 9.5 per cent compared to the benchmark 11.4 per cent.
In 2023, Pella partnered with Universal Investment and CAPinside for fund-hosting and distribution, respectively, in Europe, releasing a UCITS version of the strategy under the Pella Global Securities Sustainable Fund banner.
Earlier this month the Australia-headquartered global listed property specialist, Resolution Capital, also hit the PIE racks soon after JP Morgan Asset Management released an NZ-domiciled international shares fund – both, likewise, hosted by FundRock.