Milford remains the gorilla of the funds management industry; others bleed

The latest data shows that Milford took more than half of all the funds flow in the June quarter, but also produced top performance.

Wednesday, August 4th 2021, 7:19AM

Milford's retail funds inflow totalled $1.35 billion in the June quarter, nearly 51% of the total, according to Zenith Investment Partners. In the previous quarter the firm pulled in $697.7 million which represented 28% of inflow.

Meanwhile, AMP, AMP Capital and BT (which managers money for Westpac) are bleeding retail funds and losing market share.

BT suffered retail funds outflow of $290.2 million in the June quarter when the industry as a whole enjoyed a $2.64 billion net funds inflow in the latest three months.

This is not a new problem for the manager as it has now recorded three consecutive quarters of negative outflows totalling $425.14 million.

It is unclear why BT suffered such big outflows, but one explanation could be that last year it sold its advice business to Forsyth Barr for an undisclosed amount.

Forsyth Barr's Summer KiwiSaver fund is not included in the Zenith data. However, the data shows most of BT's outflows have been in its unit trust business rather than KiwiSaver.

AMP's retail funds outflow was $174.2 million in the June quarter. In the March quarter it saw an outflow of $39.8 million. The corresponding outflow numbers for AMP Capital were $49.6 million and a $41.4 million respectively.

AMP and AMP Capital are going through fundamental changes to their businesses with the former moving from an active management style to a passive one run by Blackrock.

AMP Capital is the big loser here as it managed AMP's active funds. Also, the future of AMP Capital has been up in the air until Macquarie Asset Management confirmed last month it had bought part of the business for up to A $185 million.

It is understood AMP Capital had been losing investment mandates as investors do not like uncertainty around ownership.

This is reflected in data which shows it has recored four consecutive quarters of outflows totalling $306.5 million. The only other managers to have four negative quarters are Asteron Life (which is in windup) and Salt Asset Management.

The big mover at the top of the funds flow table was ASB which went from 13th place to fifth recording funds inflow of $149.15 million.

The silver medal place was taken by Simplicity, bronze Fisher Funds and fourth went to Pie Funds. Interestingly these three manager have on-going above the line marketing activity.

Tags: AMP AMP Capital AMP Wealth Management ASB Blackrock BT Funds Milford Asset Management