Staff-shareholders embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with FNZ institutional owners will fight on despite a technical setback handed down by a Cayman Islands court late in 2025.
As reported last week, the Cayman Grand Court decision nullified a vote by the Kiwi GP Cayco board in July 2025 to pursue the employee case through the NZ legal system.
While the Cayman ruling may have counted-out the Kiwi GP Cayco bid for now, a spokesperson for the FNZ staff-shareholder group said the legal jab was no knockout blow.
“The class action against FNZ Group and 17 current and former directors is very much alive. FNZ is trying every trick in the book to prevent the co-founders and employee shareholders from being heard,” the spokesperson said.
“This includes repeated attempts to block one of the plaintiffs, Kiwi Cayco GP – the Cayman Islands trust that holds a substantial proportion of the employee equity – from advancing the case. However, these efforts have failed. Last October, anticipating such legal manoeuvres, we filed an identical claim with a different plaintiff.”
Following a fractious process that saw FNZ institutional owners lob several attempts to dismiss the case pre-trial, the parties now have a NZ High Court date booked for May to hear opening arguments in the US$4.6 billion class action touted as one of the biggest of its kind globally.
The employee-shareholder group – understood to represent more than 300 current and former FNZ workers – allege institutional owners breached NZ corporate law in a series of capital-raises that diluted the staff equity.
FNZ issued a statement last year, noting: “We are confident that our directors have at all times acted in the best interests of the company, its clients, employees and all stakeholders.
“The investments by FNZ’s institutional shareholders reflect a strong commitment to the company’s long-term growth and success, an outcome that can only be in the best interests of all its stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, the NZ arm of the company has named Dan Gray as managing director to replace Jeremy Graham.
A 19-year FNZ veteran, Gray moves to the top NZ role from his previous position as head of investment operations for the firm in the Asia-Pacific region.
In a release, FNZ says he “brings extensive experience across operations, client servicing and stakeholder engagement, alongside deep knowledge of the New Zealand financial services environment”.
Gray has risen through the ranks after joining FNZ as an account manager in 2006.
His predecessor as NZ head, Graham, is now FNZ head of technology across the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions.
Graham – who started at FNZ in 2007 – took on the NZ managing director position in 2024 from interim head, Scott Webster, following a period of little over a year that saw the job change hands three times.
Anthony Habis, FNZ Group chief commercial officer, said in a statement: “New Zealand is foundational to FNZ’s story and continues to be an important market for our clients and colleagues. Dan’s appointment reflects our ongoing commitment to New Zealand and our focus on delivering long-term value for clients through strong local leadership, deep market engagement and disciplined execution.”
FNZ has more than $20 billion of funds under administration in NZ.
Globally, the business – founded in Wellington in 2003 – boasts US$2.2 trillion ‘assets on platform’ with over 7,000 employees in multiple locations.