BNZ finalises local fund shift, opens global manager review as FirstCape eyes further synergies Investment News | Investment News NZ

The newly rehoused BNZ KiwiSaver and funds business is set to complete its Australasian asset transfer to Harbour this week as cash and local fixed income portfolios change hands.

As reported in March, Harbour was the beneficiary of the recent construction of FirstCape, which bundles the fund manager with the BNZ investment arm and the Jarden/JBWere NZ wealth advisory networks.

BNZ had moved just over $1.3 billion of Australasian equities from previous mandates held by Mint, Castle Point and the factor-based indexer, RQI Investors (formerly known as Realindex), to Harbour by the start of May.

But the cash and NZ fixed income assets managed by Nikko will shift this week, according to BNZ investments chief, Peter Forster. As at the end of March last year, the BNZ KiwiSaver scheme alone reported almost $1 billion in its cash fund and a further $500 million or so in local bonds.

Forster said the now Harbour-run Australasian equities mandates would be split “46% active and 54% passive”.

He said the BNZ investment arm, which manages over $6 billion including $5 billion in its KiwiSaver scheme, was also “currently reviewing our international equity managers”.

State Street manages most of the BNZ global shares passively for the KiwiSaver scheme and YouWealth retail funds suite while the group uses Antipodes, C WorldWide Asset Management, Intermede Investment Partners for its Private Wealth Series.

“We are always looking at our underlying managers and considering how to deliver the best outcomes for our customers,” Forster said.

The BNZ investment business now sits under Harbour in the FirstCape family.

While the fund transition was the initial – and easiest – move for FirstCape, the wealth and asset management conglomerate has other more complicated synergies to reap.

Malcolm Jackson, FirstCape chief, said that capturing “efficiencies through scale is an important part of delivering enhanced outcomes for our clients”.

“We see opportunities to deliver efficiencies for the FirstCape group businesses by integrating the procurement of services provided by third parties,” Jackson said. “This includes in the areas of platforms, custody and research. This work is underway now that we have completed the FirstCape transaction.”

He also quashed rumours that FirstCape was a bidder for the one-third of Fisher Funds reportedly up for sale.

However, Jackson said the KiwiSaver sector was ripe for further consolidation with FirstCape open to inorganic opportunities.

A spokesperson for the group confirmed that the Hatch direct-to-consumer investment platform, a joint venture between FNZ and Jarden, remains outside the new wealth-asset management mash-up.

FNZ bought Hatch off Kiwi Wealth in 2021 for about $40 million, spending almost another $50 million the following year to bring the platform together with the Jarden Direct business.

Under the arrangement, FNZ owns 75 per cent of the joint venture while Jarden Investments holds the remainder. FNZ was slated to take full operational control of the Hatch-Jarden Direct business in the first half of this year with a transfer understood to be imminent.