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Multi-city boutique, Pie Funds, has dumped its Roman goddess-themed KiwiSaver brand, Juno, in favour of a single-name strategy.
Launched under the Juno banner five years ago, the $520 million scheme has been rechristened as Pie KiwiSaver to “provide investors with a more unified brand and client experience”, according to a release.
Pie remains the underlying manager for the scheme formerly known as Juno, which established a unique tiered flat fee pricing structure when it hit the market in 2018.
Among the fastest-growing KiwiSaver schemes in its early years, Juno has plateaued over the last couple of reporting periods, even seeing a slight net membership loss over the 12 months to March 31 this year.
Juno was the wife of Roman king of the gods, Jupiter, with several other strings to her mythical bow including queen of the heavens, protector of marriage and women and also the goddess of finance.
In more down-to-earth matters, Pie also released two new funds last week targeting fixed income, and, listed property and infrastructure, respectively.
Mike Taylor, Pie founder, said the new funds – the first additions to the range since 2018 – “have been in the pipeline for a while”.
“We’ve waited patiently because we didn’t feel the environment was conducive to launching new products in the past few years,” Taylor said in a release, citing the likely interest rates peak as supportive for the asset classes.
Pie hired former Milford Asset Management portfolio manager, Travis Murdoch, last November as head of fixed income.
Both new funds will invest in Australasian and global assets. Pie has priced the fixed income fund at an annual fee of 0.8 per cent while the property and infrastructure vehicle costs 1.25 per cent.
From its roots as an Australasian small caps specialist from inception in 2007, Pie expanded into other assets classes including broader global equities over time.
Nonetheless, small-caps remain a key part of the Pie recipe with the manager running several strategies in the asset class, some closed and others periodically shut to new investments and later reopened.
In September this year, for instance, Pie reopened its Australasian Growth and Growth 2 funds, which had been closed to new investors since 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Pie, which manages more than $2 billion across all 11 retail funds and the KiwiSaver scheme, has offices in Auckland and Havelock North as well as satellite operations in Sydney and London.
Last October, the Pie chair, Ana-Marie Lockyer, also replaced Taylor as chief executive as the founder opted to focus on his CIO duties.
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