As another season of Investment News draws to a close, the data analytics team has packaged up a traditional end-of-year retrospective featuring the most-read moments of 2022.
From a universe of well over 400 stories boxed up in 46-odd episodes, the number-crunchers applied an AI overlay to reveal curious thematic patterns: or possibly just an arbitrary collection of unrelated events as detailed below…
Sales talk
Kiwi Wealth was the gift that kept on giving in 2022. The original for-sale tip-off led the first issue of the year and almost topped the annual charts. Despite coming in second overall, the Kiwi Wealth saga generated four of the top 20 stories in 2022, rounding off with the inevitable Fisher Funds win eight months later.
But Kiwi Wealth wasn’t the only deal in town this year. In fact, the surprise sale of fund-hosting firm, Implemented Investment Solutions (including InvestNow), rivaled the Kiwi Wealth rumour for second spot in the 2022 rankings with less than 50 clicks in it. The IIS acquirer, the Bermuda-based Apex Group, would’ve also rated highly in the 2021 report if its December 23 purchase of MMC had been within regular hours.
Falling somewhere yet-to-be-determined on the sales spectrum, the mysterious Macquarie offload of its recently purchased NZ fund business (the former AMP Capital NZ) to Mercer also raised eyebrows – and eyeballs as a top-10 performer.
The more recent NZX buyout of the Craigs fund business, QuayStreet – and potential sale of the Wealth Technologies platform – lingered just outside the 20 but worth a mention anyway.
Marketing moos
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) had a busy year pinging several providers for anti-money laundering breaches, harping on about value-for-money and slapping stop orders on various entities for over-enthusiastic marketing claims.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was a relatively minor FMA marketing take-down that claimed the most-read story record in 2022 ahead of any value-for-money musings.
Enhanced by schadenfreude, perhaps, readers lapped up the regulatory warning issued against Simplicity for breaching fund-advertising rules. The FMA follow-up in-depth explanation of the Simplicity ad foul also garnered almost as much attention.
Simplicity scored another top 10 story, too, with this social media-based report of a looming change of its underlying global manager, Vanguard, on tax-efficiency grounds. While Simplicity has yet to flick the switch, it is understood that the Deutsche Bank-owned asset manager, DWS, is in the frame to replace Vanguard.
KiwiSaver briefs
Of course, KiwiSaver is always making news with the recent confirmation that Sharesies will enter the game next year, rating a sector-best in 2022 followed by the perennially popular in-house Investment News annual survey.
Elsewhere, the disappointing debut results of the new range of default funds wandered into the 20 most-read report list. Last year the default fund shake-out dominated the whole show.
People moves
The shock death of investment luminary, Brian Gaynor, this May added a particularly sad note to 2022 but he left an impressive legacy both with the outstanding success of Milford Asset Management and his personal influence on the industry.
As Milford noted in a statement: “Brian was a driving force of both our organisation and our industry, and we will remember him as a leader, a mentor and a friend…”
People news filled several other high-ranking spaces in the 2022 back-story including (in descending order):
- Amplifi hires ex ANZ senior leader as inaugural MD
- Top ANZ fund execs head for the door;
- Babic to exit MMC as Apex brand enters;
- Lockyer takes top Pie role; and,
- Paul departs FMA for top fintech job.
Miscellaneous items
Maybe the fact of Gareth Morgan seeding a new family office, Prosper Asset Management, belongs in the people section but here it is in the catch-all basket: blame it on the AI.
Also in-between categories, the FNZ platform upgrade issues hitting Consilium this August ranked just behind the Morgan news in the top 10 group.
And finally, like a bad Christmas carol playing on repeat in a supermarket, this 2020 vintage catchy hit has returned for one more repeat spin – read now:
‘NZ tax-trading splurge could trigger tax alarms…’
Investment News signs off this week for 2022 but will return later in January, or earlier if a tax-trading story breaks in the holiday season.
Thanks to all the readers, advertisers and news-makers who made the year another one to remember… and best wishes for the next.