Top fund managers recognised

The annual FundSource Awards recognise the top performing fund managers in New Zealand. Chief judge Darren Howlin tells Good Returns TV about this year’s competition.

Monday, September 11th 2017, 12:50PM

Westpac NZ’s investment division BT Funds Management took out the supreme fund manager of the year award in the 2017 FundSource awards which were announced in Auckland on August 30.

The awards feature 10 sector awards and four main awards which include the longevity award, KiwiSaver manager of the year, boutique manager and fund manager of the year.

Chief awards judge Darren Howlin told Good Returns TV the competition was an extremely close run affair this year and was not dominated by any one specific fund manager.

“This year was very different to last year in that respect. It came down to tooth and nails differences between each of the funds. It was that close.”

A contributing factor to this could be that there has been some volatility missing from the market and that has led to some compression of returns, he said. “Therefore we are starting to see the gaps between managers get very close.”

But Howlin said the New Zealand industry is very competitive with fund managers across the board doing their best with the funds they operate and the tools they have at their disposal – and the awards were reflective of this.

Additionally, this year Australian fund managers were eligible to enter the competition for the first time and this may have put a bit of pressure on the New Zealand funds.

Howlin said that, pleasingly, there were some New Zealand managers who outperformed in some of the sectors which they would have thought Australian managers would do well in.

A key component of the completion assessment is the eligible funds’ performance over the period from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017.

But, in order to avoid one hit wonders, Howlin said the judges also take into account volatility and risk and do a qualitative review.