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Fisher Funds has hired ex AMP Capital NZ chief, Rebekah Swan, as a responsible investment adviser for a fixed term contract.
Swan led the NZ arm of AMP Capital from November 2020 through the change of ownership to Macquarie last year and until the Australian firm shopped the business to Mercer NZ, effective this March.
She spent more than 20 years at the Wellington-headquartered business in various roles, taking a lead on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Like all mainstream managers, Fisher has established a responsible investment policy although it doesn’t have a senior level dedicated ESG specialist.
Robbie Urquhart, Fisher senior portfolio manager, said Swan would lead the group’s responsible investment strategy as it developed to incorporate issues such as new climate-reporting duties.
“We are delighted to have someone of Rebekah’s calibre and expertise to help us expand our responsible investment capabilities,” Urquhart said.
Meanwhile, Mercer has been tweaking the ESG settings for the ex Macquarie NZ funds championed by Swan that now sit under its care with some portfolio changes underway, according to a note sent to investors.
“The Mercer and Macquarie Sustainable Investment philosophies are strongly aligned and have similar exclusions principles,” the note says. “However, the number of securities excluded differs. As at 31 March 2023, the exclusion lists the Funds are transitioning to have a higher number of excluded securities. There are also some differences in methodology that impact the individual stocks excluded.”
The phased transition of the underlying ex Macquarie funds is expected to complete by the end of September.
And Fisher has also started to tinker with its newly acquired Kiwi Wealth fund suite, announcing some “enhancements” earlier this month in a note to clients.
“… from 29 June 2023, we’re updating our investment approach for the Kiwi Wealth KiwiSaver Scheme to broaden the diversification by increasing the pool of investments available to the Scheme,” the note says. “This means we’ll be gradually increasing investments into Australasian companies and exposure to other asset classes like direct property and infrastructure.”
Furthermore, Fisher has changed the target asset allocation for the Kiwi Wealth cash and conservative funds.
Fisher bought Kiwi Wealth from the government-owned entity, Kiwi Group Holdings, last year for $310 million, promoting the manager to the third- (or maybe second-) largest retail fund manager in NZ with over $20 billion under management.
However, merging the Kiwi Wealth and Fisher operations behind the scenes is expected to take some time. It is understood Fisher’s long-term investment administration partner, Trustees Executors, will eventually take on back-office responsibilities for the Kiwi Wealth assets.
The Kiwi Wealth name should disappear, too, before 2023 is out, Fisher chief, Bruce McLachlan, said in April.
“We have rights to use the Kiwi Wealth brand for two years but we are trying to make the change within one year,” McLachlan said.
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