Milford, Harbour and Bentham pick up gongs

Morningstar hands out its awards, but one category had no winner.

Saturday, March 5th 2022, 3:46PM

Milford Asset Management have taken out Morningstar's fund manager of the year awards again.

The research house noted Milford were up against strong competitors but the firms "boasts an impressive lineup of capabilities exhibiting notable short- and long-term performance across several categories. These features continue to underpin the steady growth of the firm."

The other finalists for the top award were Harbour Asset Management and Nikko Asset Management.

Milford also took out the KiwiSaver award; an award it has won award in six of the past 10 years.

The Harbour Australasian Equity Income fund took out the domestic equities award and fixed interest went to Bentham Global Income.

Surprisingly Morningstar did not make an award for international equities, "as there were no eligible candidates demonstrating suitable achievement across each of our three award criteria.

“The unprecedented market volatility over the ongoing fallout of the pandemic brought uncertainty and challenges to even the most sophisticated of investors in 2021,” Morningstar Australasia director, manager research Annika Bradley said.

"Harbour Australasian Equity retains our highest conviction among New Zealand equities managers given its impressive investment team, strong investment process and sound stewardship," Morningstar said.

"The investment team at Bentham Global Income are among the most experienced and stable bond teams around. Richard Quin has led the outfit from its beginnings at Credit Suisse and continues at the helm alongside founding partners Nik Persic and Mark Fabry. The firm adopts a strong multi-strategy credit approach willing to use the tools at its disposal and has applied its high conviction views with great success over several years."

Tags: Morningstar