All boats sank a little during the March quarter as inflows of $7.2 billion failed to anchor the NZ retail funds sector amid turbulent investment markets.
According to the latest numbers from Australian research house Plan for Life (PFL), the NZ retail funds market slipped back 3.8 per cent over the March quarter, or $5.8 billion under the waterline set at the end of last year. Inflows were also down about 40 per cent on the previous quarter.
Most managers reported quarterly losses of between 3 to 4 per cent barring a trio of outliers – Fisher, Mercer and AMP – down 6.2, 6.1 and 5.5 per cent, respectively, for the three-month period.
Booster recorded the least-negative result with funds under management (FUM) falling just 2.5 per cent over the quarter; the Wellington-based manager was buoyed by “very significant” annual inflow growth of almost 80 per cent during the 12 months to the end of March, the PFL report says. The group reported over $5.8 billion under management as at March 31.
Aside from Booster, which has a wide distribution footprint among third-party financial advisers, BNZ, Kiwi Wealth and Milford also saw big inflow bumps for the 12-month period of 46.6, 45 and 29.4 per cent, respectively.
“… however those reported by AMP (-33.2%), ASB (-13.3%), BT/Westpac (-12.8%), Fisher (-6.0%) and ANZ (-4.0%) were lower,” the PFL release says.
All five of the low-flow managers were removed as KiwiSaver default providers during the annual period, losing about $380 million apiece as a result.
Milford once again topped the 12-month FUM growth-rate in the PFL survey, surging more than 35 per cent over the year to almost $15.6 billion at the end of March (albeit under the peak of $16 billion set at the end of last year).
Booster, BNZ and Kiwi Wealth also reported double-digit year-on-year FUM growth at respective rates of 26.5, 22.5 and 17.6 per cent. ‘Other’ managers, a group including Simplicity and Generate, also notched up collective FUM-growth of 15.3 per cent – although the challenger horde managed just $18.6 billion of the total $147 billion retail fund market as at March 31.
“Meanwhile the two market leaders ANZ (3.9%) and ASB (4.5%) together with Fisher (6.6%) and Mercer (5.1%) experienced more moderate increases [over the 12 months to the end of March] in their business,” the PFL report says. “On the other hand both AMP (-7.2%) and to a lesser degree BT/Westpac (-2.0%) declined.”
Curiously, the non-superannuation retail managed fund sector outpaced KiwiSaver growth over an annual period for the first time with the former rising 10 per cent against 9.2 per cent for the latter. The non-super retail fund market stood at almost $49 billion at the end of March compared to just over $89 billion for KiwiSaver.
PFL restated the December quarter non-super retail fund market share numbers in its latest report, adding more than $3 billion to the previously recorded figure of $47.7 billion: the new end-of-2021 FUM amount for the sub-sector stood at $50.9 billion, or 33.3 per cent of the total market.
The Melbourne-based PFL, headed by Rael Solomon, is part of the Institutional Shareholder Services global group.