NZ’s wealthiest man is setting up a local investment team headed by ex-pat Goldman Sachs manager, Simon Robertson.
It is understood the NZ investment team – which features latest recruit Fisher Funds Australian equities portfolio manager, Manuel Greenland – will manage a portion of the $5 billion or so retirement fund assets of US entities controlled by the Rank Group, owned by packaging magnate, Graeme Hart.
Robertson, who started his career in Auckland in 1995 as an equity analyst for DF Mainland Securities, was most recently co-head of international equity sales for Goldman Sachs in New York.
According to Forbes magazine, Hart, who famously dropped out of school at 16 and worked as a truck driver, is currently worth about US$10.2 billion – or 133 on the magazine’s billionaire rankings and number one on a similar, but smaller scale, NZ rich list.
Frank Jasper, Fisher Funds chief investment officer, confirmed Greenland had resigned from the $7 billion group majority-owned by TSB Community Trust last week for an unspecified career change.
“Manuel will work here until the end of the month,” Jasper said. “We’re sorry to see him go but we have started the recruitment process.”
He said Fisher would “cast the net wide” in its search for Greenland’s replacement.
“Obviously we want a good portfolio manager but we’re also looking for someone who can make a contribution to the wider business,” Jasper said.
In April this year, ANZ lured former Rank Group head of investment research, Russel Martin, to work as senior analyst on the domestic equities team.
“[At Rank, Martin] was responsible for the management of Rank’s US corporate pension funds, commodity and foreign exchange risk management and M&A research,” ANZ said at the time.