The Auckland Future Fund (AFF) has secured three NZ investment industry stalwarts for its start-up board as the city’s local government prepares to launch the $1.3 billion vehicle.
Elevation Capital founder, Christopher Swasbrook, will chair the AFF board due to be established this month with Craig Stobo and David Callanan also named as directors.
Last week Swasbrook was also reappointed to the board of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), the regulatory governance body now chaired by Stobo.
Well-known for his 12-year stint running BT Funds Management in NZ until 2004, Stobo now holds multiple governance positions including as chair of Saturn Advice, the Local Government Funding Agency, NZ Windfarms and Elevation Capital.
Stobo took over from Mark Todd as FMA chair this May.
Callanan has served as Public Trust general manager corporate trustee services since August 2022 after joining the licensed supervisor three years earlier as chief risk officer.
He previously spent three years as head of risk for Tower Insurance following almost 20 years in several senior risk-related roles in Australia and the UK. Callanan is also chair of the Corporate Trustees Association – the peak body for NZ investment supervisors.
The AFF is to be funded by the sale of the remaining Auckland Council-owed shares of the city’s airport – expected to raise about $1.3 billion.
Council documents note the proposed fund would convert a “single asset for a diversified asset portfolio that provides a higher and steadier expected rate of return, and which is expected to be more resilient to shocks that impact council’s other assets”.
The AFF would have a target annual return of 7.24 per cent, according to the official proposal.
In a statement, Auckland mayor, Wayne Brown, said: “The fund is a way for us to deliver greater physical and financial resilience for Auckland, protect the value of council’s intergenerational assets and enhance cash returns. I am really pleased to see this board in place and progressing the fund, which is a new strategy that will help us better deliver for Aucklanders.”
A similar ‘perpetual fund’ set to be established by the Wellington Council is now in doubt after several councillors switched sides last month to oppose the proposed sale of its shares in the local airport: the final decision will hinge on a whole-of-council vote.
The mooted fund was to be seeded with about $500 million from the sale of the Council’s 34 per cent stake in the Wellington airport.
As noted above, Swasbrook was awarded a second term as a FMA director last week after first joining the board in 2019 – although his role has been extended only until next year. The government also named three new board members for the regulator at the same time for five-year terms.
Tracey Berry, Nicholas Hegan and Mariette van Ryn join the FMA board as the regulator gears up to take on new duties such as the Conduct of Financial Institution legislation and oversight of the consumer credit sector.
Berry, currently a partner with specialist consulting firm Mosaic Financial Services Infrastructure, has spent a long career in the NZ wealth management sector including with Kiwibank, BNZ and Westpac. She is also on the board of the National Provident Fund and was formerly chair of Nikko Asset Management NZ (due to be renamed Amova Asset Management).
Hegan has held senior legal positions in NZ since 2007 following a more than decade-long career on credit and interest rate trading desks in NZ, UK and the US.
Similarly, van Ryn hailed from a lawyer background in NZ before moving to various governance roles such as a three-year stretch on the Milford Asset Management board where she also chaired the audit and risk committee.
In 2010, van Ryn was also appointed to the establishment board of the FMA for a one-year term as the regulator reformed from the ashes of the Securities Commission.