The NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) is keeping a close watch on potential portfolio spillover effects from the ongoing stress in global financial markets triggered by the collapse of the US Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
NZS owned about $10 million of SVB stock in its passive international equities funds and had about $250,000 exposure to the bank’s likely worthless debt. The approximately $60 billion fund also holds minor equity stakes in a number of other smaller US regional banks including the under-pressure First Republic.
“Holdings of this size are not material to the performance of the NZ Super Fund; it is the overall return of the portfolio that matters,” a NZS spokesperson said.
But the NZS is also monitoring fallout from SVB etc and subsequent wobbles at European banking giant Credit Suisse (currently in shotgun marriage talks with UBS).
“We are working with our external investment managers and investee companies to understand the potential impact of the SVB failure. While it will be a while before the full implications of the situation are known, the NZ Super Fund is highly diversified and is not heavily invested in the mostly directly impacted sectors, for example, venture capital. We therefore do not expect this event to have a material impact on Fund returns,” the spokesperson said.
“In terms of bank risk more generally – while sector considerations don’t factor into our passive, index-linked equity and debt portfolios, we are continually focused on this in connection with our counterparty relationships, and are closely monitoring the situation with Credit Suisse and all our other counterparties. We have minimal counterparty exposure to Credit Suisse.”
Aside from the broader market disruption, many other global share funds accessed by NZ investors – especially broad index strategies – will likely take a small direct hit from the collapse of SVB and others such as Signature Bank.
According to Nasdaq data, for example, indexing giants Vanguard and BlackRock – both popular in NZ – held SVB stock valued at about US$705 million and US$505 million, respectively, as at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, the Fisher Funds-owned listed global shares fund, Marlin, has written down its stake in Signature Bank (comprising about 3.3 per cent of the roughly $190 million portfolio) to zero. The concentrated Marlin portfolio also holds shares in First Republic, which has seen its price tank almost 90 per cent from a 12-month high of US$174, dropping even after efforts by rival banks to shore up the deposit base.
Marlin reported a net asset value of just over 81c as at March 14 compared to almost 95c early in February.