Fisher Funds stocks

[Hectorplains]

Quarterly newsletters out this morning for the Trinity from this illustrious stable.

Kingfish share price $1.38 vs NAV $1.37 (.5%)
Marlin share price $.90 vs NAV $.79 (13.9%)
Barramundi share price $.71 vs NAV $.65 (8.6%)

Share holder return for Kingfish for the last three months is -5.4% and they under performed the NZX by nearly 1%.  These investments don't make much sense to me?  I guess to be sustaining a share price above the value of your holdings is an achievement in a bear market, especially one in double figures. 

Here's Kingfish Portfolio
LISTED COMPANIES % Holding

Auckland Intl Airport 7.9%
Contact Energy 3.0%
Delegat Group 2.8%
EBOS Group 2.3%
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare 15.5%
Freightways 3.3%
Infratil 16.5%
Mainfreight 16.7%
Meridian Energy 1.6%
Port of Tauranga 2.4%
Pushpay Holdings 2.0%
Ryman Healthcare 2.0%
Summerset 9.2%
The a2 Milk Company 5.7%
Vista Group International 3.5%
Equity Total 94.4%
New Zealand dollar cash 5.6%
TOTAL 100.0%

[arekaywhy]

These guys went woke, so I turfed them.

[teabag]

Interesting that Kingfish is at near NAV, while Marlin and Barramundi are still way over. I have never really understood why you would pay so much over NAV for these funds.  Sure, there is a regular 8% "dividend", but this not fed from underlying earnings, but often eats away at capital. Seems a large premium for a quasi annuity stream.

[Basil]

Latest NAV's just out and KFL and BRM closed yesterday right on Net Asset Value.
I recently bought a small stake in each at just under NTA.
Marlin trading at a premium to NTA of 7%.

[BlackPeter]

Fisher Funds currently a bit of a red cloth for me ...

I had one of these birthdays nobody wants to mention ... and am now entitled to withdraw my Kiwi saver savings.

A number of (overseas) fund managers and insurances did send me in timely fashion a friendly letter, congratulated and advised me about he process how to access my funds. Good stuff!

Fisher Funds (holding my Kiwi Saver account) however decided to do nothing. No letter, no email, no response to my request to contact me (using their chat tool). No withdrawal information on their website, and the info in their original prospectus I got when I signed up is outdated (the website has moved ...).

So - I decided to call them and it took me nearly an hour of often quite bad music to wait for a human talking with me. He knew immediately who I was (i.e. their system seems to identify phone numbers, but then he told me that I need to talk with my "responsible" account manager who unfortunately was not around. Bad luck. Should have timed my phone call better.

Ah well, my account manager (I've never knew I had one) actually called me the next day (only 10 minutes later than agreed) and told me after inquiries about my reasons to contact them about the process to withdraw my savings ... start with filling out a nine page long form and get various details confirmed by a JP or similar and put the whole lot into the mail. No, forget the internet. Only snail mail. For withdrawals they need certified originals.

OK - I spent the morning to prepare all the stuff they want and even found a JP to certify. Nice lady, btw. Now I am praying the whole lot arrives safe in Auckland and Fisher Funds internal mail system is better than their chat service ... and in another month or so I might have access to my Kiwi saver money to invest by myself.

Seems like Fisher Funds are very happy to take money from whomever, but very specific if anybody wants them to return this money.

At this stage I don't feel I can recommend using their Kiwi saver services ... but hey, maybe the rest is worse, I wouldn't know.

[Shareguy]

Fisher Funds currently a bit of a red cloth for me ...

I had one of these birthdays nobody wants to mention ... and am now entitled to withdraw my Kiwi saver savings.

A number of (overseas) fund managers and insurances did send me in timely fashion a friendly letter, congratulated and advised me about he process how to access my funds. Good stuff!

Fisher Funds (holding my Kiwi Saver account) however decided to do nothing. No letter, no email, no response to my request to contact me (using their chat tool). No withdrawal information on their website, and the info in their original prospectus I got when I signed up is outdated (the website has moved ...).

So - I decided to call them and it took me nearly an hour of often quite bad music to wait for a human talking with me. He knew immediately who I was (i.e. their system seems to identify phone numbers, but then he told me that I need to talk with my "responsible" account manager who unfortunately was not around. Bad luck. Should have timed my phone call better.

Ah well, my account manager (I've never knew I had one) actually called me the next day (only 10 minutes later than agreed) and told me after inquiries about my reasons to contact them about the process to withdraw my savings ... start with filling out a nine page long form and get various details confirmed by a JP or similar and put the whole lot into the mail. No, forget the internet. Only snail mail. For withdrawals they need certified originals.

OK - I spent the morning to prepare all the stuff they want and even found a JP to certify. Nice lady, btw. Now I am praying the whole lot arrives safe in Auckland and Fisher Funds internal mail system is better than their chat service ... and in another month or so I might have access to my Kiwi saver money to invest by myself.

Seems like Fisher Funds are very happy to take money from whomever, but very specific if anybody wants them to return this money.

At this stage I don't feel I can recommend using their Kiwi saver services ... but hey, maybe the rest is worse, I wouldn't know.

That's good information and does not sound good at all. I also have some money with Fishers. Thanks for posting

[winner (n)]

BP ...I think it's a battle to get funds out of all/most Kiwisavers.

I never got around to filling in the forms and getting JPs etc etc but I was allowed to 'withdraw' most of what I had with minimal fuss (and quickly) .....Seems taking the lot and ending your relationship with them is a no no.

I now have a few thou in a Kiwisaver Fund and I haven't even bothered seeing how much it has grown or shrunk. Leave it there until I die and then somebody else has the hassle to get what's there

[lorraina]

Wife and I had no trouble getting our full Kiwi Saver funds out of Craigs.
Long time ago,but I would have remembered if we had had issues.
Funds were recycled straight away buying shares via Craigs.

[Basil]

AML compliance has become a serious headache in recent years.

[BlackPeter]

AML compliance has become a serious headache in recent years.

You are right, and fair enough.

However - different organisations deal with these regulations in different ways, and I don't see any reason why they would stop an organisation to be courteous, well organised and responsive to customers.

While some of the pain in the current withdrawal process might be due to more stringent money handling procedures, I see nothing stopping them to proactively contact their clients when these reach the withdrawal age, I don't see how these regulations would stop them to publish the information about the withdrawal process on their website, I don't see why any regulations would require them to understaff their call centres to make sure customers need to wait for ages in the queue, I don't see why these procedures require them to not respond to questions send to them through their chat system, and I don't see why they need one specific (and several times not available) advisor to inform the client about the withdrawal process ... while it is quite painful and bureaucratic, it does not appear to be customer specific. Any call centre staff with access to a screen could have done that.

Sure - maybe Fisher Funds are "just" overwhelmed by their recent acquisition of Kiwi Wealth (I assume they are trying to "gain synergies" and merged customer service departments) ... but for existing customers this is quite bad news. 

[blackie]

Fisher Funds currently a bit of a red cloth for me ...

I had one of these birthdays nobody wants to mention ... and am now entitled to withdraw my Kiwi saver savings.

A number of (overseas) fund managers and insurances did send me in timely fashion a friendly letter, congratulated and advised me about he process how to access my funds. Good stuff!

Fisher Funds (holding my Kiwi Saver account) however decided to do nothing. No letter, no email, no response to my request to contact me (using their chat tool). No withdrawal information on their website, and the info in their original prospectus I got when I signed up is outdated (the website has moved ...).

So - I decided to call them and it took me nearly an hour of often quite bad music to wait for a human talking with me. He knew immediately who I was (i.e. their system seems to identify phone numbers, but then he told me that I need to talk with my "responsible" account manager who unfortunately was not around. Bad luck. Should have timed my phone call better.

Ah well, my account manager (I've never knew I had one) actually called me the next day (only 10 minutes later than agreed) and told me after inquiries about my reasons to contact them about the process to withdraw my savings ... start with filling out a nine page long form and get various details confirmed by a JP or similar and put the whole lot into the mail. No, forget the internet. Only snail mail. For withdrawals they need certified originals.

OK - I spent the morning to prepare all the stuff they want and even found a JP to certify. Nice lady, btw. Now I am praying the whole lot arrives safe in Auckland and Fisher Funds internal mail system is better than their chat service ... and in another month or so I might have access to my Kiwi saver money to invest by myself.

Seems like Fisher Funds are very happy to take money from whomever, but very specific if anybody wants them to return this money.

At this stage I don't feel I can recommend using their Kiwi saver services ... but hey, maybe the rest is worse, I wouldn't know.

we had a very modest amount invested with Fisher funds, in one of their managed funds, as a joint account. same deal for us when we asked to withdraw it. visits to the JP, proof of address , ID verification etc.
thought it may have been because as a joint account they had to make sure one or other of us was not ripping off the other.
it was a real rigmarole.

[Herbert240]

This may be slightly off topic but I would never deal with Fishers again. My late mother had a managed portfolio with them. When she passed it took the Public Trust months to receive the proceeds.When Fishers did sell the funds (mainly PIE)  they repurchased them again!! I couldn't believe it! And then they didn't pay everything out in one go. The Public Trust got very frustrated with them and it cost the estate because of the extra work and follow-ups PT had to do. So no its not a "big yes" from me for Fishers!!

[teabag]

My recent total withdrawal from ASB's kiwisaver was completely painless, all done online with very little to fill out.  I had logged in via my ASB account, so that may have reduced the AML requirements on me.

[Mos]

Hello,

First post here. I see one of Marlin's holdings (4.0% at Dec 22, 4.7% at Jun 22 before share price slide) was Signature Bank which has just been shut down by US regulators. Unlikely to help Marlin NTA. See Marlin has issued NZX announcement on this as below.

13/3/2023, 3:35 pm MKTUPDTE
13 March 2023

Marlin Global Limited – Update regarding investment in Signature Bank

It has been reported today, in a joint announcement by the US Treasury, Federal Reserve (Fed) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), that the FDIC have taken control of Signature Bank, in order to stabilise the banking system and safeguard against systemic banking risk.

The move by the FDIC will protect all of Signature Bank's deposit holders, but will not protect Signature Bank shareholders or certain unsecured debt holders.

Signature Bank is one of the 22 portfolio investments held by Marlin Global Limited. The equity investment in Signature Bank, as at the most recent net asset value (NAV) (released to the NZX 8th March 2023) equated to 3.3% of Marlin's investment portfolio.

The next Marlin Global Limited NAV will be released to the NZX on Thursday 16 March 2023.

[Basil]

Welcome to the forum Mos.  I have held MLN in the past but its certainly not worth the premium to NTA its been trading at in recent times so I exited my stake quite some time ago.  The way the management team have been performing lately, with adjusted NTA down 13.4% v 2.4% for the index for the year to 28 February 2023, I would argue they should probably trade at a discount to NTA again.  Not just that, I really struggle to foresee how their tech heavy portfolio is going to outperform the market in the near term.  Frankly I'd rather find a good fund manager that specializes in deep value stocks on the S&P500.