Graham Ansell
ANZ Wealth has looked in-house to fill two new fixed interest roles created as its Auckland-based team assumes broader responsibility for the bank’s Australasian investments. ANZ has shifted its entire Australasian fixed income unit to Auckland under a revamp of its approach to managing trans-Tasman assets.
According to an ANZ spokesperson, the new “operating model” included consolidating “all Australasian security selection activities into ANZ’s New Zealand hub led by Graham Ansell, head of investment management”.
Following the changes, ANZ closed its Melbourne fixed income office shifting the roles, although not the individuals, to New Zealand, creating openings for a fixed interest/cash analyst and a credit analyst in the Auckland office.
Both jobs have since been taken up by in-house candidates with Mia Prkusic, who joined ANZ two years ago via the bank’s graduate program, winning the fixed interest analyst role.
Meanwhile, Raymond Jack, who has spent most of his 17-year investment career at ANZ, moves into the credit role from an analyst job on the domestic equity team.
“The revised team will perform day-to-day portfolio management for both Australian and NZ fixed interest portfolios,” the ANZ spokesperson said. “The aim is to maximise collaboration and idea sharing amongst team members.”
As previously reported, ANZ also poached Daria Murray from the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) in August to take up a senior equity analyst position in the Australasian team. Murray had spent less than six months as portfolio manager for the NZS in-house active local shares team after joining the fund from AllianceBernstein in the UK.
While the entire ANZ investment team reports through New Zealand, the bank has shifted two equity analysts – Justin Phillips and Des Tsao – from Melbourne to Sydney.
Phillips and Tsao “previously occupied similar roles within ANZ’s equities team when the positions were based in Melbourne”, the spokesperson said.
“ANZ is also looking to appoint an Australasian equity portfolio manager to be located in Sydney,” he said. “The recruitment process for this position is in the early stage.”
Ansell reports through to John Body, head of ANZ Wealth NZ, and Sydney-based chief investment officer, Stewart Brentnall.
ANZ is New Zealand’s largest investment business with more than $22.5 billion under management, according to the June 2015 FundSource market share report.
– David Chaplin, Investment News NZ