AMP's NZ wealth management doubles KiwiSaver net cashflows

The highlight of the otherwise flat first-half results from AMP's New Zealand wealth management business was a more than doubling of net KiwiSaver cashflows.

Monday, August 14th 2023, 6:31AM

by Jenny Ruth

The NZ business contributed a stable A$17 million net profit to its Australian parent's A$261 million result for the six months ended June.

However, its result in New Zealand dollars eased to $18 million from $19 million in the previous first half.

The parent says distribution revenue was higher and offset the impact of lower assets-under-management (AUM)-based revenue.

“Controllable costs remained stable despite inflation and the business has diversified its revenues through the divestment of a legacy business and the acquisition of enable.me, which delivers non-AUM-based revenue through fee-based coaching programs,” it says.

The latest NZ result compares with the A$15 million result for the second half of 2022.

AUM-based revenue in the latest six months fell to A$44 million in the latest six months from A$47 million in the same six months a year earlier and A$45 million in the second half of 2022.

Despite that fall, average assets under management at June 30 rose to A$10.79 billion from A$10.21 billion a year earlier and the company says that was driven by investment return.

Other revenue rose to A$20 million from A$17 million in the same six months last year and A$16 million in the second half of last year.

The firm's KiwiSaver cashflow improved to A$74 million from A$31 million, which AMP says reflects member growth. KiwiSaver AUM at June 30 were A$5.54 billion, up from A$4.92 billion a year earlier and compared with A$5.25 billion at the end of 2022.

Other AUM dropped slightly to A$5.25 billion from A$5.29 billion and this part of the business suffered a net cash outflow of A$141 million in the latest six months, although that was down from the A$158 million outflow in the previous first half.

Investment management expense was flat at A$7 million and brokerage and commissions were also flat at A$5 million but marketing and distribution costs rose to A$11 million from A$10 million.

Gross profit fell a notch to A$41 million from A$42 million in the same six months last year.

The parent's results shows AMP Bank and the platforms businesses were profitable in the latest six months but the advice business made an underlying net loss of A$25 million, although that was an improvement of A$5 million from the previous first half.

However, the presentation showed that AMP aligned financial advice practices generate higher annual revenue than the industry average.

Average revenue per practice was up 10.3% and about 50% of practices generate revenue of more than A$1 million compared to about 30% for the broader industry.

Tags: AMP