New Zealand Super’s new chief executive Jo Townsend inherits an organisation with a strong culture but facing some challenges posed by rapid growth. An internal project aims to reduce complexity and focus on simplicity for a fund already rated by WTW as operating at global best practice levels.
New Zealand Super just returned its best-ever result of nearly 30 per cent. In addition to the gains from its overweight position to equities the fund also fully hedged the currency. Amanda White explores the fund’s strategy and the risk budgeting review currently under way.
New Zealand Super’s low-carbon reference portfolio has outperformed the original reference portfolio, adding NZ$800 million to the fund and providing evidence of ESG alpha. The low-carbon reference portfolio, that until now has had targets of reducing emissions intensity by 20 per cent and its exposure to potential emissions from fossil fuel reserves by 40 per cent, has added about 60 basis points per annum to performance since it was brought
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund invests money, on behalf of the New Zealand Government, to help pay for the increased cost of universal pension entitlements in the future. By doing this the Fund adds to Crown wealth, improves the ability of future Governments to pay for universal pensions, and ultimately reduces the tax burden on … Read more
A view that the US stock market is overvalued and equity risk premia will be lower over the long term has driven New Zealand Super to lower the return expectations for its reference portfolio following its recent five-yearly review of the benchmark. Co-chief investment officer Brad Dunstan also flags underweight commodity exposure as an area to address and explains why the fund remains sceptical of illiquidity premia despite seeing a growing case for private markets.
As NZ Super nuts out growing pains in processes and technology, it has made some recent decisions to change its governance route including appointing two co-CIOs, Brad Dunstan and Will Goodwin, last year. In an interview, they discuss the co-delegation model, the evolution of TPA, and new alpha sources.
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