Fisher Funds is staffing up as the approximately $25 billion investment manager continues to fold the Kiwi Wealth business into the mixture.
The Takapuna-based firm, now headed by Simon Power, is on the hunt for three newly created senior general manager roles covering the respective divisions of KiwiSaver, managed funds and business development.
“Like all businesses, we are always looking at how we can better serve our clients,” a spokesperson for the group said. “Since integrating Kiwi Wealth, we’ve grown in size and scale. This growth has led to the creation of several new roles.”
Fisher dispatched most of the Kiwi Wealth senior executives after completing a debt-fueled $310 million purchase of the government-owned investment firm last year.
The group has also formally dropped the Kiwi Wealth brand – renaming the KiwiSaver scheme as the Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Plan, for example – as well as making several back-office rearrangements.
In March this year Fisher removed JBWere from previous duties as sub-custodian of certain Kiwi Wealth funds (Public Trust is main custodian). The firm also appointed Apex NZ as registrar across its entire suite of funds this April. Apex already handled registry and some other administration tasks for the Kiwi Wealth KiwiSaver.
Power took over from long-time Fisher chief, Bruce McLachlan, in February this year.
Post the Kiwi Wealth purchase, Fisher overtook ASB as the second-largest KiwiSaver provider behind ANZ.
Meanwhile, US private equity firm, TA Associates, has yet to offload its one-third stake in Fisher after reportedly sounding out bidders near the end of last year.
Several offshore private equity players have been linked as potential buyers of the TA Fisher holding with at least one local firm also understood to be weighing up an offer.
Fisher rearranged its ownership structure in 2022 under a new holding company, FFML. Taranaki-based community trust, Toi Foundation, holds over 66 per cent of the Fisher shares with TA – which also owns parts of the Apex global business, Russell Investments and Betashares – taking up the remainder.
Also last week, the boutique index fund challenger brand, Kernel Wealth, clicked past the $1 billion threshold last week after racking up a record $170 million of flows in April alone.
Founded in 2018 by former Smartshares executive, Dean Anderson, Kernel reported growth in assets under management of almost 90 per cent in 2023 – and 50 per cent year-to-date – on the back of new products and growing retail interest, Anderson said in a release.
“As we’ve grown our product offering, we’ve increasingly appealed to more everyday Kiwis wanting to manage their money,” he said. “We find customers are coming to us from the banks, looking for alternatives to term deposits, or from other investment platforms.”
Just over half of Kernel clients are classed as wholesale (including financial advisers) versus 80 per cent in its first year in operation.
Over the last three years, in particular, the Auckland-based firm has pushed hard in product development by adding almost 20 funds (after starting with three in 2019), a KiwiSaver scheme in 2022 and a cash savings facility.
Anderson said Kernel planned to branch out into other investment products aside from funds next year.
But the furious pace of growth has been capital-intensive.
During the 12 months to the end of March last year Kernel reported a net loss of almost $5 million following a $3 million deficit the previous year and about $2.25 million of losses in its first 18 months in business.
The company was seeing annual recurring revenue growth “consistently over 90%”, Anderson said.
In April, Kernel chief operating officer and early minority investor, Stephen Upton, also joined the board.