Nikko takes out top award for second year

Nikko Asset Management received the top award as Morningstar's New Zealand Fund Manager of the Year last night for the second consecutive year.

Thursday, February 28th 2019, 7:31AM

Nikko Asset Management

While Nikko was nominated in all the sector awards, Domestic Equities, Global Equities and Fixed interest its sole gong was the overall award.

Other repeat winners were T. Rowe Price in Global Equities and Milford for KiwiSaver.

This year was the first year ANZ received no nominations.

“The winners in the Morningstar Awards have all shown themselves to be first-class stewards of their investors’ capital,” said Tim Murphy, Morningstar Director of Manager Research, Asia-Pacific.

“Markets posted a mixed bag of returns in 2018, and the select list of fund managers nominated all demonstrated an ability to add value over the year and consistently reward over the long-term, too. New Zealand investors have an increasing source of high-quality investment options to choose from, with Nikko Asset Management being the stand-out asset manager for 2018.

Nikko Asset Management was a comfortable winner of Morningstar’s overall award for excellence in funds management in 2018, making it back-to-back wins of the big prize. The firm was again a finalist in all three asset class categories, illustrating an impressive consistency of performance across the board. Nikko has reinvigorated its business in recent years, improvements in its domestic capabilities complemented by a strong new global offering, leaving investors with a range of good quality options to choose from. These traits led to peer-beating outcomes for their investors, cementing Nikko’s case as the outstanding fund manager of 2018.

Fixed Interest Category – AMP Capital NZ
AMP Capital NZ continues to set the standard for fixed interest investors in New Zealand. Few can match the stability of team and process, which importantly has consistently delivered over the long term for its investors, and 2018 was no exception. The reliability of AMP Capital’s NZ Fixed Interest strategy in delivering peer-beating returns year-in, year-out, along with its experienced team gives us confidence that this Gold-rated manager will continue to deliver for investors in the future.

Domestic Equities Category – Mint Australia NZ Active Equity
Mint Asset Management continues to deliver returns to justify its position among the top echelon of Australasian equity managers. The team’s focus on finding quality companies with sustainable growth characteristics has paid dividends in a significant way, consistently leading to peer-beating outcomes in 2018 and over the long term. Portfolio manager Anthony Halls has led this strategy for more than five years now, and with a strong team around him gives us confidence in the continued strong future prospects of this strategy.

International Equities Category – T. Rowe Price Global Equity Growth
T. Rowe Price may not be a well-known brand in New Zealand, but the firm has an impressive global pedigree that few can match. Harbour Asset Management are responsible for bringing this product to New Zealand investors in late 2014 and it’s paid off handsomely for investors since. The hard work is carried out by United States-based portfolio manager Scott Berg. He’s an astute manager who travels extensively to uncover the best company ideas. The strategy delivered strong performance in 2018, and we believe it is a very good global equities approach with many strong characteristics that will continue to reward investors in the future.

KiwiSaver Category – Milford Asset Management
Milford Asset Management continues to lead the way in KiwiSaver. The firm adopts a very active approach to asset allocation, which it has used to great effect over the long term. It’s not easy to consistently make the right macro calls, but Milford has shown a knack for being right more often than not. The firm has one of the biggest investment teams with a great mix of bottom-up research and intelligent macro insights and is a standard bearer for its focus on timely and transparent information. It richly deserves our KiwiSaver Award.

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