The Nikko Asset Management name officially folds this week as the Japan-headquartered global investment shop opens a new umbrella brand across 13 jurisdictions including NZ.
Nikko switches to Amova Asset Management as of September 1 in a change flagged 12 months ago to recognise the increasingly international scope of the US$260 billion fund manager.
Stuart Willams, Amova NZ managing director, said the new name better-reflects the broader status of business that has outgrown its origins as the Nikko Securities Investment Trust founded in 1959.
“The new name has a more global feel aligned to the funds management group today,” Williams said.
He said the NZ Nikko team had input into the rebranding both at a “high level” and in the more practical mechanics of the process such as ensuring Amova documentation referred to ‘clients’ rather than ‘customers’.
“I had quite a bit to do with the name,” Williams said, as well as other Nikko NZ staff including marketing head, Sharon Evans.
Amova was concocted as a composite of ‘asset management’ with the ‘ova’ flourish intended to reference both ‘move’ and ‘nova’ – or a sense of action and innovation.
But he said the philosophy, investment style and shareholding of the funds management business remained the same post the rebrand.
Part of the Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group, Amova favours “high-conviction, active fund management”, according to a release.
Nikko entered the NZ market in 2010 after buying the-then Suncorp-owned Tyndall Investment Management, which at the time was a trans-Tasman operation.
Previously, Tyndall had been through several ownership changes including as part the Guinness Peat Group and Royal & SunAlliance (later floated as Promina – a group acquired by SunCorp in 2007).
However, the core of the Amova funds management business in NZ was formed in 1994 within the Norwich Union insurance company.
The Amova NZ business today manages almost $9 billion across a mix of institutional, wholesale and retail clients.
While still weighted to the institutional and wholesale markets, Amova (in Nikko days) has made inroads into the retail space including via its Goalsgetter KiwiSaver scheme – now reconfigured as a selection of in-house and third-party managers.
Released initially as a ‘robo-advice’ service in 2019, Goalsgetter continues as a sub-brand in the Amova universe, Williams said, albeit dressed in the new purple clothing in place of the former Nikko yellow.
The Amova purpleness is on display, too, in the local marketing merch supplied by well-known NZ brands including corporate casualwear by Mons Royale and the highly prized Blunt umbrella – known colloquially as the FUMbrella.