(pictured: Glenn Ashwell)
Mercer appears to have lost its largest registry client in New Zealand – the NZ$1.4 billion (A$1.27 billion) ‘Fisher Two’ fund, which was formerly operated by the Tower group – according to a report in Investment News NZ. Mercer’s own KiwiSaver fund will now be its largest registry client.
Trustees Executors (TE) is understood to have won the Fisher Funds combined registry contract, besting Mercer in the one-on-one backoffice battle. If confirmed, the news will see Mercer lose its biggest registry client in NZ while proving a huge relief to TE.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Fisher Funds constituted about half of TE’s estimated NZ$6 million of registry revenue. As reported in September, Fisher Funds was seeking to rationalise its registry business, which was split between Mercer and TE for historical reasons.
While TE supplies registry to most Fisher funds, Mercer provides the service to the products the group acquired as part of its NZ$79 million purchase of Tower Investments in 2013.
In the KiwiSaver space, Mercer was registry provider for the NZ$1.4 billion Fisher Two (ex Tower) fund with TE in charge of the NZ$1.2 billion Fisher scheme. Mercer also provides for its own KiwiSaver fund, which has about NZ$1.2 billion.
Glenn Ashwell, Fisher general manager, said in September the registry rationalisation was intended to “improve the service offering to our clients”. Ashwell said at the time any transition between registry providers should be smooth with both Mercer and TE now utilising the new Bravura technology system, Sonata.
“Obviously, when we do rationalise down to one provider it will make one of them unhappy – but we don’t want that to affect the transition,” he said in September.
In total, Fisher Funds manages about NZ$6.6 billion, according to local research house, FundSource, with about 260,000 underlying clients.
It is understood Fisher staff were informed of new registry arrangements last week. Ashwell was not available for comment prior to publication.
– David Chaplin, Investment News NZ