Performance fee update – lesson for NZ

 

The background

Thomson Reuters (Milan) noticed that performance fees charged by Italian fund providers seemed to be higher than elsewhere in Europe.   2015 performance fees as a percentage of assets under management (or “AUM”) for European managers referenced by Reuters are below:

Manager	Country	Performance fee as a % of AUM
Banca Mediolanum	Italy	0.46%
Azimut	Italy	0.43%
Banca Generali	Italy	0.31%
Henderson Group	UK	0.11%
Amundi	France	0.01%
GAM Holdings	Switzerland	0.07%

Reuters’ focus was on the highest charge in the table - Banca Mediolanum.  Mediolanum is a significant Italian fund provider with €37 billion under management, which is one and a half times NZ’s entire KiwiSaver market.  Pathfinder was approached by Reuters Milan due to the lack of help from European fund managers in reviewing the performance fee structure.