ANZ Investments profit falls, dividend and costs to ANZ rise

ANZ Investments profit falls, dividend and costs paid to ANZ Bank rise in 2017

By Sophie Boot

Dec. 11 (BusinessDesk) - ANZ New Zealand Investments saw profit fall but income rise in the latest financial year as it paid a bigger dividend and more in operating costs to its parent company.

Funds management fee income rose 10 percent to $141.6 million in the year to Sept. 30. Operating expenses rose 19 percent to $87 million, and net profit dipped 2.6 percent to $40 million.

The biggest increase in operating expenses came from the expenses it paid back to its immediate parent ANZ Bank New Zealand. The company paid $48 million in dividends to ANZ, from $40 million a year earlier, and operating expenses from ANZ Bank, which covers the investment fund's management's salaries along with the premises and technology used by the fund, increased to $28 million from $18.2 million in 2016.

The fund's investment management expenses rose 15 percent to $22 million n the year, while commissions rose 16 percent to $18.4 million.

In the year, ANZ New Zealand Investments incurred $5.6 million in new and increased provisions to cover the estimated gap in its customers' Kiwisaver accounts which came from some members not receiving their full tax credits due to historical processing errors from the bank. The bank told BusinessDesk that all unpaid member tax credits and a related investment performance payment have now been repaid to KiwiSaver members.

In June this year, ANZ Bank said it had identified 51,000 Kiwisaver members affected, and most of those would have had underpaid amounts of $50 or less.

ANZ New Zealand Investments acts as manager for a number of superannuation funds, and had total funds under management of $13 billion as of Sept. 30, from $11.2 billion a year earlier.

(BusinessDesk)

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