ANZ Investments has seen its retail fund market share slip by 0.6 per cent over the 12 months to September 30 last year despite posting double-digit growth during the period, according to the latest figures from Australian researcher Strategic Insight (SI).
The SI data shows ANZ owned 28.6 per cent of the almost $90 billion NZ retail managed funds world as at the end of September 2017 compared to 29.2 per cent 12 months prior.
Over the same 12-month period ASB, closest rival to ANZ, experienced the greatest boost in market share ratcheting up 0.8 per cent to finish on 14.6 per cent (or almost $12.8 billion) last September 30. ASB reported annual growth of almost 20 per cent and 8.7 per cent during the September quarter compared to 10.1 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively for ANZ.
However, ANZ has a comfortable cushion in top spot with its almost $25 billion under management still more than $12 billion above ASB. About 45 per cent of ANZ retail funds are sourced from KiwiSaver compared to 62 per cent for ASB, SI figures show.
Outside the tussle between the top two players, Mercer, Milford, Kiwi Wealth, BNZ and Booster all carved out market share growth during the 12-month stretch ranging from 0.4 per cent to 0.1 per cent. Meanwhile, Fisher Funds held a stable 6.1 per cent share over the annual period as both AMP and Westpac dropped 0.5 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
Managers beyond the top 10 also suffered during the 12 months ending September 30 as their collective market share fell from 8.8 per cent to 7.8 per cent. The smaller end of the market bled in nominal terms, too, over the annual period with aggregate funds under management dropping 0.6 per cent from just over $6.8 billion in September 2016 to $6.78 billion 12 months later.
Most of the top 10 firms, though, saw double-digit annual funds growth with BNZ (43.5 per cent), Kiwi Wealth (24.3 per cent) and Mercer (20.3 per cent) the stand-out winners in this category. Only AMP (8.3 per cent) failed to clear the 10 per cent annual growth hurdle achieved by its top 10 peers.
The SI report says total NZ retail funds grew 12.6 per cent in the 12 months to September 30 pushed along by unrelenting KiwiSaver flows and average investment returns of about 6 per cent.
KiwiSaver grew almost 20 per cent over the annual period compared to 6.6 per cent for non-superannuation retail funds. Overall, the quasi-compulsory savings scheme grew its share of the retail fund market from 48.6 per cent in September 2016 to almost 52 per cent the following year. As at September 30 KiwiSaver reached funds under management of about $45.2 billion, almost $10 billion more than the non-super retail fund sector, the SI figures show.
“Gross Inflows jumped 21.6% to NZ$6.8bn during the September 2017 quarter due to the usual KiwiSaver cashflow seasonality boost coupled with some increased flows into Unit Trusts. Over the whole of the past twelve months Inflows were up 11.4%,” the SI report says. “Companies posting double digit percentage increases in their Inflows year on year included ASB (45.5%), BNZ (37.8%), Generate (26.4%), Milford (18.7%), AMP (15.2%), BT / Westpac (14.8%), Fisher (14.0%) and Kiwi Wealth (11.6%).”