Milford Asset Management gained a march on Fisher Funds in June with the dueling boutiques neck-and-neck in retail funds under management (FUM), according to
Australian consultancy firm, Plan for Life (PFL).
The PFL figures show Milford was just $6 million behind Fisher in retail FUM as at the end of June after experiencing a 10.4 per cent growth spurt over the quarter – the only manager to go double-digit in the period. While Fisher charted a respectable 5.6 per cent growth-rate during the three months to June 30, the Takapuna-based manager ceded the almost $300 million lead it held over Milford at March 31.
Both Milford and Fisher grew market share in the three-month stretch by 0.4 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively, to end the quarter with 6.5 per cent of the market apiece.
In October Milford reported its FUM topped $8 billion.
Other quarterly growth outperformers in the PFL rankings included BNZ (6.9 per cent) and Booster (5.7 per cent) and ASB (4.6 per cent).
Interestingly, the hodgepodge of managers lumped under ‘other companies’, which includes fast-growers such as Generate and Simplicity, also beat the total market average June quarter growth of 3.9 per cent, turning in a 5.1 per cent result. The ‘others’ also grew 12.1 per cent during the 12 months to June 30 against the overall average of 11.3 per cent.
But if some minnows were swimming against the stream, for most of the big fish the June quarter was tougher going. ANZ, the whale of the NZ funds management industry, grew a sub-par 8.1 per cent for the annual period and 3 per cent over the quarter.
Despite the inertial drag, ANZ still managed to add $800 million in FUM in the quarter and more than $2 billion during the 12 months ending June 30: the bank-owned manager continues to own more than a quarter of the market at 26 per cent (almost $27.5 billion) – although that was down from 26.7 per cent as at June 30, 2018.
ASB, the second-largest manager with some $16.1 billion FUM, grabbed almost exactly the amount of market share shed by ANZ, increasing to 15.2 per cent from 14.6 per cent at the same time last year. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia-owned bank saw FUM increase 4.6 per cent for the quarter and 16.3 per cent over the 12 months.
Meanwhile it was steady-as-she-goes for the $13 billion BT/Westpac, up 2.2 per cent and 10.8 per cent over the quarter and year, respectively.
At the other end of the scale, the in-play AMP followed on trend with insipid FUM growth for both the quarter (1.4 per cent) and year (2.1 per cent). The AMP NZ business, which could be sold any day now (perhaps to a competitor in the PFL list), lost a further 1 per cent market share in the 12-month period and 0.2 per cent over the quarter to finish at 11.2 per cent.
Mercer, which reported about $6.2 billion under management at June 30, also had a sluggish year (up 5 per cent) and quarter (2.2 per cent) By contrast, the $4.4 billion Kiwi Wealth grew 14.6 for the year and 3.7 per cent during the three-month period.
Total NZ retail FUM breached the $105 billion mark at June 30, the PFL figures show, representing a year-on-year increase of more than $10 billion.
“Almost half the growth was due to further significant net fund flows experienced with good performances on underlying investment markets during the last two quarters accounting for the balance,” the PFL report says.
The almost $60 billion KiwiSaver market (up 16.5 per cent over the year) spurred most of FUM expansion but other non-superannuation managed funds were also “up a more moderate 6.4%” to just under $40 billion.
“Gross annual Inflows to June were NZ$27.5bn, up 7.0% on the previous year; during the June quarter reported Inflows jumped 16.1%,” PFL says. “While Generate, Milford, Fisher, ASB and BNZ posted double digit annual Inflow growth rates both Mercer and AMP were lower.”
In September the Melbourne-based actuarial and consulting firm PFL itself embarked on a retro-rebrand in the wake of its sale this January to global proxy voting and governance giant, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). Until the name change, Plan for Life was formerly known as Strategic Insight, which was formerly known as Plan for Life.
In a note to clients, Rael Solomon, PFL regional managing director, said the new-old brand would sit beneath a freshly-created ISS umbrella business.
“… you will see this new brand start to transpire beginning with our notable return to the Plan for Life brand under ISS Market Intelligence,” Solomon says in the note.