Aon will pay a US$1 billion break fee to Willis Towers Watson after a proposed marriage between the two global insurance broking and professional services firms fell over last week due to US regulatory problems. In a joint statement (July 27), Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) blamed the end of their 16-month engagement on…
BlackRock, the biggest investment house in the known universe, now holds sway over about a quarter of the NZ retail fund market after cementing a deal with ASB last week to oversee some $20 billion. The ASB move to outsource most investment decisions to BlackRock coincides with the transition of an estimated $10 billion of…
New studies from two big-name consulting firms show the global funds industry struggled to increase profit margins in 2020 despite reporting bumper growth in assets under management (AUM). Reports from both EY and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found double-digit expansion in global funds management AUM during 2020. The BCG study says AUM increased year-on-year…
The Police Superannuation Scheme in NZ will tweak its asset allocation model and launch a new high-growth option after some outsourced soul-searching. The exercise is a case study in matching member expectations. In its latest newsletter, the almost NZ$2.4 billion (A$2.2 billion) PSS says the changes follow the findings of an investment review and member…
An independent review has called for a governance and investment upgrade at the NZ Government Superannuation Fund after finding the fund’s management and board had been at odds over recent performance. In its five-year statutory review, the Australian arm of global consultancy Willis Towers Watson (WTW) found the GSF, a NZ$4.2 billion (A$4.0 billion) fund…
Following its BNZ win in May, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has picked up the final large passive institutional mandate abandoned by Vanguard in New Zealand. According to new disclosure documents, ASB will shift its indexed Australasian equities portfolio – of an estimated NZ$4 billion plus – from current manager Vanguard to SSGA this month….
A new financial advisory firm-run KiwiSaver scheme is set to launch with former AMP Capital multi-asset CIO Sean Henaghan in charge of investments. Henaghan, well known in Australia for his 15 years at AMP Capital, was an ex-pat Kiwi stranded back home last year under covid-19 border restrictions. He returns to active duties at Aurora…
The long-awaited mega-merger between two global financial services giants, Aon and Willis Towers Watson, has hit a major snag as the US Department of Justice moved to block the transaction. In a statement last week (June 16), the Department of Justice (DOJ) says it had “filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today to block Aon’s [US]$30…
The NZ Government will release climate risk scenario guidance for the financial and corporate sectors by year-end to support impending new carbon reporting standards. Alex White, Ministry for the Environment (MFE) sustainable finance team leader, told a funds industry gathering in Auckland last week that the in-production scenario analyses would help NZ investors better understand…
Asia-Pacific financial markets could experience some turbulence as bond issuers globally switch to new pricing mechanisms later this year. According to a new report published by Bloomberg and the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), up to US$190 billion (A$246 billion) of bonds issued in the APAC region could remain linked to the traditional LIBOR benchmark…
