Generate lead portfolio manager, Sam Goldwater, will step into a dedicated chief investment officer (CIO) position once new Kiwi Wealth recruit, Nathan Field, joins the Auckland boutique next year.
Goldwater said Field, who has run the (now Fisher Funds-owned) roughly $1.6 billion Kiwi Wealth global equities thematic fund for almost a dozen years, would take over his co-portfolio manager duties for the Generate direct international shares portfolio.
“The [Generate] portfolio is divided into two sleeves of which he will manage one,” he said. “We will [also] offer a non-KiwiSaver global equities retail fund managed by Nathan.”
“I will move to more of a pure CIO role – which will see me continuing the management of our investment team, our asset allocation, our underlying funds, and co-managing our FX strategy.”
Field is slated to join Generate next March. Other Kiwi Wealth employees will likely depart as Fisher Funds integrates its new possession – a pre-Christmas staff update is understood to be on the cards.
The now $3.5 billion Generate has also increasingly taken investment duties in-house while making other changes to its global shares external manager line-up earlier this year.
Notably, the firm has cut most of its exposure to the under-fire Australian international equities manager, Magellan, after selling down holdings in the unlisted Global Fund this July.
“We still have a residual investment in their listed Magellan Global Fund product,” Goldwater said. “As it is currently trading at a steep discount to [net asset value] NAV – and with a possibility it is redeemed at par once the options on the listed product expire – we decided not to exit this position at the time we exited the unit trust.”
He said Generate replaced the Magellan portfolio with an allocation to two value-style US-listed exchange-traded funds.
Magellan has seen funds under management (FUM) more than half since losing a key A$23 billion UK mandate last year and the shock exit of kingpin, Hamish Douglass, along with other significant staff changes.
Earlier this month the Sydney-based manager reported a further A$2.5 billion of net outflows in November – split between A$1.9 billion of institutional money and the remainder from retail funds – as total FUM dropped slightly to A$50.2 billion from A$52 billion at the end of October.
Meanwhile, the Generate KiwiSaver scheme – which represents the bulk of the manager’s $3.5 billion FUM – also confirmed a $20 million allocation to Movac Growth 6 Fund last week.
In 2020 Generate put $21 million of its KiwiSaver money into a Salvation Army-managed social housing bond, following up this year with a $13.7 million in the Te Puna Hapori – Verdi Social Housing Bond.
The new fund offered by local venture capital specialist, Movac, will give the Generate KiwiSaver scheme exposure to late-stage NZ technology companies, according to a release.
“We are very excited to be making our first investment into the venture capital space. Movac has a stellar track record of venture capital investment in New Zealand,” Goldwater said in the statement, “and we look forward to our members’ funds being invested with the goal of supporting the growth of the next PowerbyProxi or Vend.”
Movac, founded more than 25 years ago, has secured funding from a wide variety of local investors including the NZ Superannuation Fund.
Several other KiwiSaver providers have dabbled in venture capital investments including Simplicity (through Icehouse), Pathfinder and Booster.