Mint Asset Management has hired a new senior investment analyst, luring Tom Deacon from Macquarie NZ.
Deacon, who served as senior analyst in the Macquarie Australasian stock research team for the last five years, will specialise in Australian and NZ healthcare and tech companies at Mint.
Prior to Macquarie, he spent over two years as a business analyst at Acurity Health after a more than four-year stint with Jarden in an equity research position.
Simon Haworth, Mint chief operations officer, said in a statement: “We are really pleased to have Tom joining as the newest member of our team. Tom has a strong analytical background, and his experience and technical skills will further strengthen our research capability.”
In May this year, Mint portfolio manager, Michael Kenealy, decamped to Pathfinder, freeing up an analyst slot at the $2 billion plus boutique.
Meanwhile, investment software firm, Bravura, has opened up its ‘digital-first’ fund administration system to the NZ market following a successful upgrade across the Tasman in one of the biggest Australian superannuation schemes.
The A$160 billion Aware Super shifted about 1.1 million members to the new Bravura-built digital-focused admin platform last month in a move that saw the “phasing out of paper-based legacy systems”, according to a release.
Aware formed in 2020 following the amalgamation of four state government superannuation funds – First State Super, VicSuper, WA Super and StatePlus – into the third largest in the country. Australian super funds have been on a merger splurge over the last few years as fee and regulatory pressures drive a consolidation trend.
Verne Haine, Bravura NZ country manager, said the Aware transition shows why a digital-first approach to fund administration would also play well on this side of the Tasman.
“Bravura’s Sonata administration solution underpins services for 40% of KiwiSaver customers,” Haine said. “We are now extending this capability, bringing our Sonata Alta BPaaS (Business Process as a Service) proposition to the New Zealand wealth management industry.”
Following the admin changeover, Aware was able to provide a range of member services, including advice, while also dropping fees and opening a ‘portal’ that offers “real-time, 24/7 ’parcel tracking’ of [member] transactions, and a reduction in transaction processing times of literally weeks for transactions such as hardship claims”, the Aware release says.
Also last week, another Australian private debt manager has flagged intentions to grow in NZ after appointing a new PR agency.
Global Credit Investments (GCI) hired the highly respected Madden & Associates to help build the brand in both Australia and NZ as the private debt market gathers steam.
Bruce Madden, founder of the eponymous financial services specialist agency, said in the statement: “The private credit market is nascent in Australasia, however, the GCI business has grown strongly since its inception in 2015. We are pleased to have been selected to help communicate the GCI story and support the company’s continued growth and product and leadership development.”
The Australian private credit market doubled to A$1.4 billion in 2021 with growth picking up in NZ, too, as more borrowers seek non-bank funding and investors target alternate sources of income-focused returns, spurring several specialist managers to create products.
Last week, for example, the Australian alternative wholesale manager and platform service, iPartners, launched two private debt PIEs in NZ while other firms including Metrics and Revolution Asset Management have crossed the ditch to tap into the demand.