Three weeks after the 6.3 earthquake that struck Christchurch, I flew to Auckland on the North Island of New Zealand for our Opalesque 2011 New Zealand Roundtable. Four of the participants joined the Roundtable from Christchurch on the Southern Island. One of them was still affected from an injury, while another one was currently living with his family in a tent in his garden.
However, the spirit at our reunion was up-beat, as a lot of fund managers have done extremely well in New Zealand and were able to outperform the majority of their global peers, including investment legend Warren Buffett, over the last 12 months.
Independent thinking has always been a strength of the Kiwis. Being in New Zealand allows those managers to make “very good, very dispassionate decisions” and offer both domestic and international investors attractive options. With a return of over 16.5% per annum since inception after fees, the Ernst and Young NZARA Absolute Return Index has outperformed the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, the Newedge CTA Index, MSCI World and the NZX 50 Gross by a wide margin.
Pointing to the extreme volatility in the markets, Charles Drace from Socrates Funds Management warns that “volatility does not suit traditional strategies but rather alternative strategies”, and that “most of the people in the alternative market in New Zealand are probably better able to cope with that volatility than Wall Street or London type managers.”
New Zealand based managers benefit from a highly skilled workforce with very low levels of staff turnover. An extremely low cost base allows them to start out and maintain their business also with little AUM. But the country, the government and some entrepreneurs have also higher aspirations to establish New Zealand as a back/middle office infrastructure provider to some parts of the financial services industry. More, consultancy firm Oliver Wyman suggested in a report to the government to develop the framework for a true Asian funds domicile, as at this point “Asian” funds are really domiciled in Luxembourg, Dublin, Cayman Islands or other similar domiciles outside of the region.
The government has already put a very tax efficient and cost effective New Zealand Limited Partnership structure in place that can be used for non-New Zealand investors investing outside of New Zealand as a pass-through entity. Such a LP can be registered for $250 only which allows launching a structure quickly with a relatively small capacity, whereas “with a Cayman fund you do not get any change out of $50,000”, says Kenji Steven from NZ Capital Strategies.
Tue, 03 Oct 2023 | |
Mon, 01 Aug 2022 | |
Wed, 23 Jun 2021 | |
Mon, 10 May 2021 | |
Thu, 17 Dec 2020 | |
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 | |
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 | |
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 | |
Fri, 06 Dec 2019 | |
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 | |
Wed, 17 Jul 2019 | |
Wed, 10 Jul 2019 | |
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 | |
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 | |
Sun, 07 Apr 2019 | |
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 | |
Sat, 09 Feb 2019 | |
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | |
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 | |
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 | |
Tue, 18 Dec 2018 | |
Tue, 11 Dec 2018 | |
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 | |
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 | |
Tue, 13 Nov 2018 | |
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 | |
Mon, 10 Sep 2018 | |
Wed, 08 Aug 2018 | |
Tue, 10 Jul 2018 | |
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 | |
Mon, 28 May 2018 | |
Mon, 14 May 2018 | |
Tue, 10 Apr 2018 | |
Fri, 02 Mar 2018 | |
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 | |
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 | |
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 | |
Wed, 17 Jan 2018 | |
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 | |
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 | |
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 | |
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 | |
Mon, 27 Nov 2017 | |
Tue, 14 Nov 2017 | |
Tue, 07 Nov 2017 | |
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 | |
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 | |
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 | |
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 | |
Wed, 03 May 2017 | |
Thu, 20 Apr 2017 | |
Thu, 06 Apr 2017 | |
Sun, 12 Mar 2017 | |
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 | |
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 | |
Thu, 19 Jan 2017 | |
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 | |
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 | |
Thu, 15 Dec 2016 | |
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 | |
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 | |
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 | |
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 | |
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 | |
Mon, 31 Oct 2016 | |
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 | |
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 | |
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 | |
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 | |
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 | |
Mon, 04 Jul 2016 | |
Tue, 21 Jun 2016 | |
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Montreal Opalesque Roundtable Series - Montreal (French version) |
More information |
|
|
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 | |
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 | |
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 | |
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 | |
Sun, 07 Feb 2016 | |
Wed, 27 Jan 2016 | |
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 | |
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 | |
Thu, 24 Dec 2015 | |
Wed, 16 Dec 2015 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2016 Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2016 (Mandarin version) Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2016 (Portuguese version) |
More information |
|
|
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 | |
Wed, 02 Dec 2015 | |
Wed, 25 Nov 2015 | |
Tue, 17 Nov 2015 | |
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 | |
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 | |
Fri, 23 Oct 2015 | |
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 | |
Tue, 06 Oct 2015 | |
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 | |
Sat, 01 Aug 2015 | |
Wed, 22 Jul 2015 | |
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 | |
Thu, 04 Jun 2015 | |
Thu, 28 May 2015 | |
Fri, 15 May 2015 | |
Wed, 06 May 2015 | |
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 | |
Fri, 20 Mar 2015 | |
Tue, 10 Mar 2015 | |
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 | |
Thu, 05 Feb 2015 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2015 Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2015 (Mandarin version) Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2015 (Portuguese version) |
More information |
|
|
Thu, 29 Jan 2015 | |
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 | |
Thu, 08 Jan 2015 | |
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 | |
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 | |
Mon, 01 Dec 2014 | |
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 | |
Tue, 04 Nov 2014 | |
Tue, 28 Oct 2014 | |
Mon, 20 Oct 2014 | |
Wed, 08 Oct 2014 | |
Wed, 01 Oct 2014 | |
Thu, 03 Jul 2014 | |
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 | |
Wed, 14 May 2014 | |
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 | |
Wed, 05 Feb 2014 | |
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 | |
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 | |
Tue, 07 Jan 2014 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2014 Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2014 (Spanish version) Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2014 (Portuguese version) |
More information |
|
|
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 | |
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 | |
Mon, 18 Nov 2013 | |
Thu, 07 Nov 2013 | |
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 | |
Mon, 05 Aug 2013 | |
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 | |
Wed, 10 Jul 2013 | |
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 | |
Mon, 24 Jun 2013 | |
Mon, 17 Jun 2013 | |
Wed, 12 Jun 2013 | |
Thu, 30 May 2013 | |
Mon, 20 May 2013 | |
Tue, 14 May 2013 | |
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 | |
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 | |
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 | |
Mon, 17 Dec 2012 | |
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 | |
Mon, 26 Nov 2012 | |
Thu, 01 Nov 2012 | |
Tue, 23 Oct 2012 | |
Tue, 16 Oct 2012 | |
Tue, 02 Oct 2012 | |
Mon, 24 Sep 2012 | |
Wed, 25 Jul 2012 | |
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 | |
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 | |
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 | |
Thu, 07 Jun 2012 | |
Wed, 30 May 2012 | |
Wed, 23 May 2012 | |
Thu, 10 May 2012 | |
Thu, 03 May 2012 | |
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 | |
Thu, 12 Jan 2012 | |
Wed, 21 Dec 2011 | |
Fri, 09 Dec 2011 | |
Thu, 24 Nov 2011 | |
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 | |
Mon, 07 Nov 2011 | |
Mon, 31 Oct 2011 | |
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 | |
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 | |
Wed, 10 Aug 2011 | |
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 | |
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 | |
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 | |
Thu, 19 May 2011 | |
Mon, 02 May 2011 | |
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 | |
Sun, 03 Apr 2011 | |
Fri, 25 Mar 2011 | |
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 | |
Sun, 19 Dec 2010 | |
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 | |
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 | |
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 | |
Tue, 09 Nov 2010 | |
Thu, 04 Nov 2010 | |
Mon, 25 Oct 2010 | |
Mon, 04 Oct 2010 | |
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 | |
Wed, 16 Jun 2010 | |
Sun, 06 Jun 2010 | |
Mon, 24 May 2010 | |
Sat, 08 May 2010 | |
Wed, 28 Apr 2010 | |
Thu, 18 Mar 2010 | |
Thu, 04 Mar 2010 | |
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 | |
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 | |
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 | |
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 | |
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 | |
Mon, 19 Oct 2009 | |
Mon, 05 Oct 2009 | |
Fri, 26 Jun 2009 | |
Tue, 09 Jun 2009 | |
Fri, 29 May 2009 | |
Thu, 21 May 2009 | |
Wed, 13 May 2009 | |
Fri, 24 Apr 2009 | |
Thu, 19 Mar 2009 | |
Fri, 05 Dec 2008 | |
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 | |
Fri, 07 Nov 2008 | |
Mon, 20 Oct 2008 | |
Wed, 01 Oct 2008 | |
Wed, 02 Jul 2008 | |
Wed, 11 Jun 2008 | |
Fri, 23 May 2008 | |
Tue, 20 May 2008 | |
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 | |
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 | |
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 | |