Investment team boost Far North presence

Cut it out. The Craigs cake gets the Winston treatment at the Kerikeri office opening. Northland MP Winston Peters is flanked by Craigs Investment Partners Executive Chairman Neil Craig (right) and Kerikeri investment advisors Ian Derrick.

NEWS RELEASE
30 October 2015
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Investment team boost Far North presence

Low interest rates and a growing stream of retirees and ‘refugees’ from the Auckland housing market are generating significant new investment activity in the Mid and Far North, according to Craigs Investment Partners.

The Kerikeri branch of the company saw a 65 percent increase in funds under management between 2010 and 2014 and expects this to ramp up still further. A move this week into expanded premises in Hobson House opposite the post office marks nearly 10 years since a Craigs branch was opened in Kerikeri to serve the Far North. The company as a whole celebrated its thirtieth anniversary last year.

The growth of funds under management in Kerikeri reflects a national trend of investment growth in the regions.

Half of the ten billion dollars that Craigs Investment Partners has under management in New Zealand is now managed from the regions. Of its 16 offices, 10 are in provincial centres.

“When it comes to investment management, at least, the story of provincial New Zealand is a good one,” Mr Derrick said. “The bulk of our growth in Kerikeri is coming from the Auckland housing market, retirees and immigration. But a healthy chunk stems from a reinvigorated appetite for investment from middle New Zealand and that is highly encouraging.”

The Kerikeri team remains the same for now; investment advisors Ian Derrick and Bruce Mathieson supported by Sara Dormer and Carolyne Brooks-Quan. But the additional space and new facilities mean that there is scope for more advisors and fresh expertise if required.

Craigs Investment Partners secured a foothold in Northland when Mr Derrick opened a branch in Whangarei in 1999. Establishing an additional branch in Kerikeri during 2006 was “a logical progression” from there.

The new Kerikeri office is not only future-proofed, it’s fire-proofed too. Core technology and paper records are located in a fire-proof ‘bunker’ built by the Far North District Council when it occupied the centre.

Craigs Investment Partners has had a strategic alliance with Deutsche Bank since 2010, who took a 49.9% equity interest in the firm. Craigs provides world class equities trading and global research capability for individuals, as well as trans-Tasman solutions for multi-national investment banking and institutional transactions. Their wholly owned subsidiary, Deutsche Craigs provide advice on divestments, mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring for their clients who include corporates, financial institutions, and local and central Government.

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