Milford Asset Management has another clutch of trophies for the cabinet after picking up the top prize and the Morningstar NZ annual awards last week.
Now the third-largest retail fund manager in NZ, the Auckland-based Milford has won of slew of industry gongs in recent years including the overall winner in rival ResearchIP event last December.
In addition to the Morningstar NZ fund-manager-of-the-year award, Milford pipped ANZ and Kiwi Wealth in the KiwiSaver category.
Kiwi Wealth, Milford and ANZ filled out the top three rankings (in various order) by performance for both the one- and three-year periods to the end of 2021, according to the most recent Melville Jessup Weaver quarterly investment survey.
Both Nikko and Harbour Asset Management featured as finalists in the overall fund-manager-of-the-year category.
Morningstar named Harbour as best NZ equities manager (besting Nikko and Milford) while the Australia-headquartered Bentham Asset Management took out the remaining award as best fixed interest manager for its Global Income Fund.
“Bentham also took out the award in the fixed interest category for the Morningstar Awards – Australia,” Morningstar says in a release. “The investment team at Bentham Global Income are among the most experienced and stable bond teams around. Richard Quin has led the outfit from its beginnings at Credit Suisse and continues at the helm alongside founding partners Nik Persic and Mark Fabry.”
The specialist global credit manager is part of the Challenger-owned multi-affiliate Fidante Partners. Auckland-based third-party fund marketing business, The Investment Store, represents Bentham in NZ.
Harbour and its now subsidiary, Hunter, were also finalists in the fixed income competition. The Wellington-based Harbour bought Hunter, previously owned in equal shares by Implemented Investment Solutions and founder Tony Hildyard, last September for an undisclosed sum.
Morningstar dropped the traditional global shares manager award this year after most NZ-based firms in this category underperformed the benchmark last year, according to director of manager research Asia-Pacific, Tim Murphy.
“Many were caught out by the rotation [from growth to value stocks],” Murphy said last month.
Launched in 2003 by a group of well-known investors, including Brian Gaynor, as a private wealth manager, Milford morphed into a full-blooded retail fund firm in 2007 – rollingout a KiwiSaver scheme three years later.
The business, headed by Mark Ryland, last reported funds under management in excess of $16.5 billion.