Long-time Milford global equities portfolio manager, Felix Fok, has joined Jarden Wealth to run international shares for the FirstCape subsidiary.
Fok replaces Jeremy Ward, who left Jarden in February to take up a portfolio management position at Alvarium – the Auckland-based investment group that includes Pathfinder in its stable.
In his new role, he will “support the Jarden Wealth DIMS offer” managed by the group’s private wealth team, according to a spokesperson.
Specifically, Fok will focus on global equities in the Jarden Wealth research division headed by John Norling, serving alongside global equities analyst, Ben Stewart, and wealth research director, John Carran.
Fok served almost a dozen years at Milford in charge of the now $20 billion manager’s global shares portfolios before leaving the firm this March.
Prior to Milford he held research and portfolio management roles in Hong Kong and the UK.
In a statement, Jarden Wealth chief, Chris Wilson, said Fok has a “track record of uncovering investment themes and identifying future market leaders poised for long-term outperformance”.
“We are looking forward to bringing Felix’s insights to our advisers and clients,” Wilson said.
Boasting a combined 113 advisers and $29 billion of funds under advice, the Jarden and JBWere NZ advisory networks are now part of the FirstCape conglomerate that also includes the BNZ KiwiSaver scheme and Harbour Asset Management.
Meanwhile, the Auckland City Council has begun the hunt for board members to establish a ‘regional wealth fund’ pencilled-in to launch in the 2026 financial year with $1.3 billion in the kitty.
“In creating this inaugural board, we have an opportunity for a Chair and two Directors,” the Auckland Future Fund (AFF) recruitment ad says.
Among other duties, the yet-to-be-formed AFF board would have responsibilities to hire, “oversee and instruct the fund administrator and investment manager(s)”.
The council approved a toned-down AFF plan this May with the fund to be seeded by the sale of its 11 per cent stake in Auckland Airport.
Under the previous preferred strategy championed by Mayor Wayne Brown, the fund was projected to start-up at three-times the size including the proceeds of a mooted sale of a 35-year lease to run the Ports of Auckland.
According to draft policy documents, the AFF would allow the council to transform a “single asset for a diversified asset portfolio that provides a higher and steadier expected rate of return, and which is expected to be more resilient to shocks that impact council’s other assets”.
The fund will have a target annual return of 7.24 per cent with the aim of protecting “the real value to benefit future generations”, the board ad says.
And the AFF will open up a new wholesale pitching opportunity for local fund managers in what has been a static sector.
Auckland Council group treasurer, John Bishop, told press in June that the AFF board would open a “competitive market process to secure a professional fund manager”.