Milford's KiwiSaver shines while ANZ enjoys a rare March qtr

Milford Asset Management’s KiwiSaver funds enjoyed a better performance than all other KiwiSaver funds in the March quarter but returns were generally poor, the latest Melville Jessup Weaver survey shows.

ANZ enjoyed a rare quarter with its growth and balanced KiwiSaver funds second-best performers for the quarter after spending long periods languishing at or near the bottom of the performance tables.

Milford’s $6.53 billion growth fund was the best performer in that category but still produced a negative 0.2% return for the quarter while the median return for all 15 growth funds was negative 2.8%.

Milford’s growth fund was sixth best performer over one year but best over three, five and 10 years.

“Predictably enough, investors with higher policy weights to growth assets will have had a disappointing quarter,” said MJW’s William Nelson.

“Most of the funds in this group still have a respectable allocation to global bonds (median 9.3%) which helped to dull the pain of their share portfolios,” Nelson said.

“Many of the more conservative KiwiSaver funds managed to avoid losses this quarter entirely,” he said.

The median return from balance funds, which have between 50% and 65% in growth assets, was still negative 1.7%, as was the return from moderate funds, those with 30% to 49% in growth assets, which was negative 0.8%.

But the median conservative fund, those with between 15% and 29% in growth assets, eeked out a positive 0.1% return.

Milford’s balanced, moderate and conservative funds were the best performers in their categories with a positive 0.3% return, positive 0.6% and positive 1.3% respectively for the quarter.

ANZ’s almost $5 billion growth fund was the second best performer with a negative 2.2% return, though it was still second-last performer over the year ended March with a 2.8% return compared with the median 5.9%.

ANZ’s $3.59 billion balanced fund also ranked second in the quarter with a negative 1% return but was 15th out of the 16 balanced funds for the year and the worst performer over three, five and 10 years.

Generate’s $674 million moderate fund was the worst performer in that category for the quarter with a negative 2.1% return but it was eighth over the year with a 5.4% return, just shy of the median.

The worst performing growth fund in the quarter was Generate’s $1.8 billion fund with a negative 4.3% return but it was ninth over the year, second over both three years and 10 years.

Booster’s $383 million balanced fund was the worst performer in that category in the quarter with a negative 2.4% return and it ranked 12th over the year, 10th over three years, 13th over five years, but fourth over 10 years.

Booster’s $51 million conservative fund was the worst performer out of 18 funds with a negative 0.3% return and it was second last in the year with a 4.6% return.

ANZ’s $1.49 billion conservative fund was the fifth best performer in the quarter but the worst for the year with a 4% return.