By Craig Simpson
The latest data released for KiwiSaver performance as at March 31, 2013 is from Mercer and MercerSuperTrust. Our story covering the results to December 31, 2012 can be found here.
Mercer's core portfolios are some of the most diversified with investors having exposure to traditional asset classes as well as holdings in unlisted securities and alternative assets (which could include for example; Forestry, Commodities, Natural Resources, Hedge Funds and Infrastructure).
Total funds under management (FUM) is approximately $844 mln with close to 80% of this being held in the default fund (Conservative Fund). Ten of Mercer's 15 funds available under KiwiSaver are smaller than $10 mln.
While others have moved to consolidate some of their low FUM offerings, we have not heard anything along these lines from Mercer (yet).
The past 12-months have seen the growth oriented portfolios continue to outperform the more income focused strategies and this has been a consistent theme for the past few quarters.
Across the main diversified portfolios over the last 12-months, Mercer's High Growth portfolio has been the star, returning 11.9%.
Over the past five year period to March 31, Mercer has proven to be one of the leading performers in the more 'conservative' KiwiSaver categories of Default, Conservative, Cash and Fixed Income.
However when it comes to providing 'risker' portfolios the returns have lagged some of their competitors.
Mercer have been running more 'conservative' asset allocations within their funds compared to some of their competitors and this has contributed to the Balanced and High Growth trailing the better performing funds in those sectors.
The single sector funds, specifically Mercer's Trans-Tasman and Global Shares funds have performed well compared to their peers.
Currently the three share funds offered by Mercer do not have any exposure to Australian companies.
There is no denying that the NZ market has outperformed the Australian Stock Exchange of late and the preference for New Zealand shares over Australian shares in the Trans-Tasman fund reflects Mercer's forward-looking views on the performance of the New Zealand economy and our companies compared to Australia. Local companies also have a superior dividend yield and the additional income pickup will be helping the returns.
Since October 2007 three of Mercer's funds have recorded a negative performance, with the Global Shares fund still feeling the effects of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The recent positive performance of this fund and the continued resurgence in world share markets should see this longer term performance improve markedly.
Below is a table of the longer term performance of the Mercer and Mercer SuperTrust funds. The return data is before tax and after fees and is as published by the managers. (No adjustments have been made to take into account those additional fees which scheme providers may charge and which are not included in calculating the fund performance. We do make such adjustments, but they will not be included until the full benchmarking is published.)
|
Mercer KiwiSaver Scheme (31 March 2013) |
1 year (p.a.) |
5 year (p.a.) |
Since inception* (Oct 2007) (p.a.) |
| Conservative Fund (default) | 7.1% | 6.1% | 5.4% |
| Balanced Fund | 9.6% | 4.6% | 2.6% |
| High Growth Fund | 11.9% | 3.4% | 0.5% |
| Cash Fund | 2.9% | 4.4% | 4.6% |
|
Mercer SuperTrust KiwiSaver Scheme (31 march 2013) |
1 year (p.a.) |
5 year (p.a.) |
Since inception* (Oct 2007) (p.a.) |
| Conservative Fund | 6.4% | 5.1% | 4.2% |
| Moderate Fund | 8.7% | 5.7% | 3.3% |
| Active Balanced Fund | 9.7% | 4.6% | 2.6% |
| Growth Fund | 10.6% | 4.0% | 1.7% |
| High Growth Fund | 11.9% | 3.3% | 0.4% |
| Cash Fund | 2.9% | 4.4% | 4.6% |
| Fixed Interest Fund | 5.6% | 7.3% | 7.4% |
| Real Assets Fund | 9.2% | 1.3% | -1.3% |
| Trans-Tasman Fund | 24.6% | 7.2% | 2.6% |
| Shares Fund | 14.6% | 2.9% | -0.4% |
| Global Shares Fund | 10.5% | 0.7% | -2.0% |
* Mercer has not reported the return since inception for the various funds. We have calculated the since inception return using monthly returns provided directly by the manager.
More detailed performance reporting can be found here ».
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