Big bank-owned retail fund managers navigated the June quarter market shake-out better than most, according to the latest data from Australian research house, Plan for Life (PFL).
The PFL quarterly survey of NZ retail funds shows all of the 10 largest managers bar ANZ, ASB and BT/Westpac saw total assets slide south of -7 per cent during the volatile three-month period.
Westpac topped the funds under management (FUM) June quarter growth charts, stemming losses to just -3.8 per cent ahead of ASB (-4.5 per cent) and ANZ (-5.5 per cent).
Fisher Funds reported the biggest quarterly FUM blow-out, dropping 9.3 per cent – or about $1 billion – to end the period just above $10.1 billion.
The sharp retreat saw AMP pull slightly ahead of Fisher in total assets as at June 30 after falling behind this year – albeit with the tiniest of margins ($2 million) separating the two rivals.
Kiwi Wealth was best-of-the-rest among the 10 largest managers as FUM fell 7.1 per cent during a three-month period where even the previously bullet-proof Milford Asset Management took a -7.7 per cent hit.
But over the 12 months to June 30 Milford was one of only four top 10 retail managers to record positive growth, adding 8.4 per cent to an asset pool leveling out at $14.4 billion by the close.
Milford, which replaced Westpac as the third-largest retail manager late last year, retains a comfortable margin over the bank-owned firm despite a slight narrowing of the gap during the three-month period.
However, the mostly passive provider, Simplicity, weathered a 7.4 per cent decline in the June quarter to rack up the highest annual growth-rate of 22 per cent to finish with almost $5.2 billion under management.
Simplicity pushed the final ‘big four’ bank-owned manager, BNZ, into the ‘others’ category in the June PFL report.
AMP, Mercer and Fisher reported the worst annual growth-rates of -14.7, -12 and -9.7 per cent, respectively, in a 12-month period that captured their loss of KiwiSaver default status.
The other two default losers – ANZ and ASB – were down a -4.9 and -3.7 per cent for the 12 months to June 30, the PFL figures show.
Against recent trends, ANZ, ASB and Westpac clawed back market share during the June quarter.
PFL, however, restated the NZ retail market size in the latest report, adding some $10 billion to the ‘others’ category compared to previously quarterly surveys.
The anonymous group of managers equated to about $18.6 billion at the end of March in the previous PFL report while the June report puts the March 31 figure for the category at $28.3 billion.
Post recount, the NZ retail funds market bled about $10 billion over the three months to June 30 while falling $4 billion year-on-year.
“Retail Managed Funds decreased by 6.6% in the June quarter to stand at NZ$147.1bn while over the whole of the 2021/22 financial year they also declined slightly by 2.7%,” the PFL report says.
“… Gross reported annual Inflows to June totalled NZ$40.0bn, which was little changed year on year down just a marginal 0.1% after rising 3.0% in the latest quarter. While market leader ANZ along with Kiwi Wealth, Nikko and Booster reported double digit percentage increases in their Inflows these were offset by large falls experienced by BT / Westpac, Fisher and AMP.”
Headed by Rael Solomon, PFL is part of the global Institutional Shareholder Services group.