NZ Funds’ KiwiSaver hitches ride with Lyft

NZ Funds announced today that its top rated KiwiSaver Scheme received an allocation of Lyft shares which listed on the Nasdaq on Friday 29 March 2019 and traded at a 21% premium to its issue price.

Monday, April 1st 2019, 12:09PM

Michael Lang

NZ Funds is thrilled to announce that investors in our KiwiSaver Scheme ¹, Superannuation Scheme and certain Managed Portfolio Service growth orientated portfolios received an allocation to Lyft at the issue price.

NZ Funds believes that over the next ten years car ownership and transport will undergo a structural change because of transportation-as-a-service and that this may leave Uber, Didi and Lyft as three of the most valuable companies on the planet.

“If we told our clients twenty years ago that newspaper and television stations would become almost worthless, there would be a digital form of the yellow pages (Google) and that the company that enables people to trade photos of their grandchildren would be one of the most valuable in the world (Facebook), no one would have believed you” says Michael Lang, NZ Funds’ CEO.

“We think transport-as-a-service is a similar idea. Lyft started as a way for college students to share rides, while Uber was designed to enable people to rent an expensive “black car” and driver for a night. But the idea has now gone well beyond that. Last year in New Zealand alone, Uber completed 83 million transport kilometers, equivalent to travelling to the moon and back 108 times.”

“When you factor in that the cost of car ownership, insurance, parking, fuel, environmental harm and congestion are all rising while the cost of transport-as-a-service is falling, you get a very profitable formula. We think it won’t be too long before families and individuals living in cities question why they need to pay so much to own two or three cars, especially as the average car is only used for around one hour a day, or 4% of the time.”

NZ Funds was able to research the ride share theme and secure shares in the Lyft IPO (which was significantly oversubscribed making it unavailable to many other investors) because of NZ Funds’ long-standing relationship with New York-based hedge fund billionaire, John Paulson.

“Twenty years ago, NZ Funds decided that despite having an award-winning track record in New Zealand equities ², we would build an expertise in global financial markets because we believed that the most reliable way to build and retain wealth over the long term was to invest both locally and internationally. Lyft is a great example of how our global expertise is benefiting our New Zealand clients twenty years later” Lang says.

NZ Funds is one of New Zealand’s longest-standing wealth management specialists, with a 30-year investment track record. NZ Funds works with over 100 independent financial advisers throughout New Zealand from seven nationwide locations. It offers advisers and clients market-leading services in KiwiSaver, UK Pension transfer, cash management and cashflow planned retirement portfolios. Independent financial advisers who work with NZ Funds recently gave NZ Funds a net promoter score of +48. NZ Funds is dedicated to helping New Zealanders make better financial decisions and leaving the world a better place.

1 - Top rated by Commission for Financial Capability for service on website Sorted with score of 99%.
2 - FundSource ranked NZ Funds, New Zealand Equity Income Trust top performing New Zealand equity manager 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Tags: KiwiSaver