NZ Funds enjoys best year, financially, since 2021

New Zealand Funds Management appears to have enjoyed a much better year than any year since 2021 when it received enormous performance fees.

Friday, September 12th 2025, 6:06AM 1 Comment

by Jenny Ruth

It also looks as if a sale of the business is still on the cards.

NZ Funds net profit for the year ended March jumped nearly five-fold to $5.5 million and the result is even better than the bottom line suggests because the previous year's profit was almost all a tax benefit.

Pre-tax profit in the latest year jumped to more than $8 million from just $90,000 the previous year.

Cash flow from operating activities jumped to $11.2 million from $2.6 million the previous year.

The result was achieved on an 11.4% increase in revenue, with investment management fees up 11.8%, and a 13.9% decline in operating expenses, mainly due to a 17.6% decline to nearly $16 million in staff related costs and benefits.

The cost of key management personnel in the year fell 27.7% to $6.7 million.

The company paid dividends of $1.1 million in the latest year compared with $8.1 million the previous year, but it also paid two dividends post the March 31 balance date, $400,000 on May 7 and $8.8 million on May 26.

The 2021 bottom line net profit of $36.5 million was after $57.2 million in performance fees.

The latest accounts include the same note as last year providing a long-term incentive (LTI) payment to “an executive of the group” should there be either a sale of its shares or business assets or the parent company's shares by Sept 30, 2026, and which would be settled in shares.

If there is no such sale, the agreement terminates on Sept 30, 2026.

The value won't exceed $7 million and the fair value of the LTI was estimated at $338,000, the same as a year earlier.

The expense of the LTI in the year just gone was $42,250, the same as in the previous year.

The executive who would benefit wasn't named.

Companies Office records show Gerald Siddall and Russell Tills, a former executive, own 37.74 of the parent company, Investment Group Holdings, while chief executive Michael Lang and Richard James own 37.75% in two parcels of 26.46% and 11.29% while a trustee for executives owns the remainder of the shares.

There appears to have been a shuffling of shareholdings since GoodReturns last reported – previously, the records showed Lang and Siddall each owned 36.7% of the parent company.

Tags: NZ Funds