Edmonds' fund supermarket takes out competitor

Anthony Edmonds' direct-to-client fund business has acquired a competing service run by RaboDirect.

Wednesday, October 4th 2017, 6:54AM

The irony of the deal is that the Rabo service was established by Invest Now's general manager Mike Heath.

InvestNow founder, Anthony Edmonds, says the RaboDirect Managed Funds acquisition is a massive endorsement of the InvestNow direct-to-consumer fund service, which has grown funds under management to over $100 million since launch in January this year.

“The fact InvestNow has attracted more than $100 million under management in less than eight months clearly shows the New Zealand market is ready for a modern direct online fund service,” Edmonds says.

“RaboDirect pioneered the concept of direct managed fund sales in New Zealand and InvestNow is well-placed to take over what RaboDirect have developed given we share the same underlying products on the platform, as well as strong historical management links.”

Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Daryl Johnson said InvestNow was a logical partner to work with.

Johnson said the decision to no longer offer the Managed Funds product line had been made in order to simplify the RaboDirect business model.

“As a fundamental part of Rabobank’s overall business in New Zealand, RaboDirect will continue to play a key role in raising deposits for Rabobank to lend to our clients in the food and
agribusiness sector,”

RaboDirect Managed Funds customers will be offered the option to have their fund holdings transferred to the InvestNow platform.

RaboDirect Managed Funds customers will have access to InvestNow benefits, including no entry fee on fund purchases (RaboDirect currently charges customers up to 0.75% on fund purchases), and an extensive range of funds to select from. The InvestNow platform boasts all of those funds currently offered by RaboDirect, plus a range of additional funds and managers not currently offered by RaboDirect, including the increasingly popular passive funds provided by Vanguard and the NZX-owned Smartshares.

The acquisition excludes the Cash Advantage Fund and Term Advantage Fund holdings of RaboDirect customers.

Tags: Anthony Edmonds InvestNow RaboDirect Smartshares Vanguard