Mercer has shuttered a storied local shares fund after assets under management fell dramatically earlier this year.
The Mercer NZ Shares strategy, inherited as part of the group’s takeover of the Macquarie NZ fund suite last year, closed in May, ending almost 30 years in operation.
After closing the product to new investors on May 13, the manager processed redemption requests until a week later ahead of a wind-up operation scheduled to begin “on 30 May 2024”, Mercer says in disclosure documents.
“This will involve liquidating the fund’s investments and distributing the proceeds to remaining investors in proportion to their unit holdings.”
As at the end of March, the local equities fund reported $11.8 million under management compared to more than $230 million three months earlier.
It is understood the sharp fall in assets under management followed a mandate change from anchor investor, Resolution Life.
Resolution is associated with the Mercer-Macquarie fund nexus after the Bermuda-headquartered group completed its purchase of the AMP life insurance business in 2020.
The NZ arm of AMP life, now Resolution, had about $3 billion invested in then sister company, AMP Capital. Resolution NZ now has $5.5 billion in assets under management following its buyout of Asteron this April.
Macquarie took control of certain AMP Capital fund assets – including the entire NZ business – in May 2022. But just 12 months later the Australian financial powerhouse handed the AMP Capital NZ division to Mercer in a reported no-cash deal.
Mercer picked up 23 funds under the arrangement, now dropping to 22 after the NZ Shares product wind-up.
Established in 1995 as part of the local AMP Capital product range, the NZ Shares Fund reported $490 million under management at the end of 2015 – although it may have peaked higher.
AMP Capital ran the NZ Shares strategy (along with other local active equities funds) in-house until early in 2015 when it appointed Salt Funds as underlying manager.