Harbour Acquires Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund

Hunter Investment Management Ltd and IIS Ltd announced a deal today with Harbour Asset Management Ltd, who are set to acquire the Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund.

The Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund is a New Zealand based PIE Fund, with investments managed by PIMCO. Portfolio management is undertaken by PIMCO’s global bond team led by Andrew Balls in London, with Sachin Gupta in Newport Beach, California.

According to Hunter Managing Director Tony Hildyard, the partnership is a logical one. “Harbour is a perfect fit for Hunter, sharing the same customer-first philosophy while bringing added resources and product offerings to the table”.

Under the newly penned deal, Harbour will become the fund issuer but the fund will remain part of the Hunter Investment Funds scheme.

“We are thrilled to be able to provide our clients with exposure to a responsibly invested and highly rated global bonds strategy” says Andrew Bascand, Managing Director of Harbour. “Our clients have benefitted from our relationship with T. Rowe Price for global equities for over 6 years and will now benefit from an expertly managed global bond fund.”

Hunter Managing Director Tony Hildyard will join the Harbour team as Senior Portfolio Specialist as of 30th September and remain responsible for the day-to-day oversight and client management of the Fund.

Bascand says “We are excited to have Tony join Harbour - his extensive experience working with global bonds, in particular with PIMCO, makes him a valuable addition to the Harbour team.”

Since its launch in 2017, the Fund has been hosted by IIS, who are also major shareholders in Hunter. The Fund is supported by KiwiSaver, Superannuation Schemes, Community Trusts and many financial advisers. This support has seen the Fund grow to $1.1bn since its launch in 2017. The Fund has been extremely successful with strong value added over the benchmark over one-, three- and five-year periods.

Implemented Investment Solutions’ Anthony Edmonds said that while selling the Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund was a tough decision, it allowed his business to focus on other growth opportunities. “Our fund hosting, InvestNow and Hunter businesses have each experienced exponential growth. We have finally had to decide where we focus our energy, which is continuing to grow InvestNow and fund hosting.” Edmonds goes on to say that while the Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund has grown to over $1.1 billion of assets in under 4 years, the fund still has huge growth potential in Harbour’s hands.

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