Investing in New Zealand

New Zealand is a small market and we manage a large Fund. All of the investments we make must serve our purpose and be according to our mandate to investment on a prudent, commercial basis. That means we must weigh up a number of factors before making any investment, including those in New Zealand. Specifically:

would it be possible to generate better returns for future New Zealanders by investing somewhere else?

what impact might there be on the New Zealand market and on the economy more broadly of the Guardians making, managing and ultimately exiting local investments?

Nevertheless, we believe we have endowments that give us advantages other investors do not have, for investing in New Zealand. We are local, we have a long-term investment horizon and we have a high tolerance for holding investments for a long time - even permanently.

We also have a Directive from the Minister of Finance relating to investment in New Zealand. A full copy of the Directive is here, however in summary it requires us to:

"..investigate whether we can establish new management arrangements in selected areas, including small-to-medium sized infrastructure opportunities and the provision of recapitalisation and expansion capital facilities for NZ companies. We may, subject to suitable opportunities arising, explore rural and land-based investment, investments within State Owned Enterprises, and larger infrastructure opportunities."

Our response to the Directive is here.

This sets the context for our investment activity in New Zealand.

To discover more about our New Zealand investment strategies and investment activity, click here.