STAKEHOLDER UPDATE APRIL 2026 – NZ Super Fund well positioned in volatile markets.
The NZ Super Fund is well positioned in the current volatile market conditions with investment strategies performing as expected.
As at 31 March, Fund value stood at $86.6 billion and the Fund had returned 11.9 percent over the previous 12 months, slightly ahead of the passive Reference Portfolio benchmark, which had returned 11.01 percent (all returns after cost and before NZ tax).
Co-Chief Investment Officer Brad Dunstan says: “Our inter-generational mandate and our operational independence allow us to implement long-term investment strategies that can take advantage of market volatility. We remain heavily weighted to growth assets; therefore, the value of the Fund will fluctuate in the short term. Our focus remains on maximising long-term returns and managing risk appropriately.”
Senior investment team appointments
We’re delighted to announce three new senior appointments to our investment team.
Current team members Sian Orr and Bryan Bennett have been appointed Director, Private Equity and Director, Real Assets respectively. With some 20 years’ collective experience on the investment team, Orr and Bennett have been involved in some of the Super Fund’s most important investments as portfolio managers and have held numerous governance roles on behalf of the Fund.
Their appointments follow Brendon Jones’s promotion to Head of Real Assets and the return to the Guardians of former staffer Qing Ding in the newly-created role of Head of Portfolio Strategy and Research.
Meanwhile, Chis Parks has been named Director, Sustainable Investment – a role which will include fostering cross-team collaboration to ensure sustainability considerations are fully integrated into all parts of the Guardians’ investment process, and leading the Guardians’ stewardship activities.
Parks has 20 years’ experience across the fund management industry, including at large Australian super fund QSuper, in climate and sustainability research and as an impact investment Principal and portfolio manager.
Recruitment is continuing for a Head of Portfolio Completion and Head of Private Equity.
Judicial Review finding
We are considering our response to a judicial review decision in which the New Zealand High Court found certain parts of our current sustainable investment policy documents do not comply with legislative requirements.
In broad terms, the Court found that the relevant parts of the policy documents did not identify with sufficient clarity the standards and procedures the Guardians applies in order to invest the Super Fund “in a manner consistent with avoiding prejudice to New Zealand’s reputation as a responsible member of the world community ”.
We will update stakeholders once we have thoroughly evaluated the decision and determined how to respond to it.
Fund makes $1.6 billion tax payment to NZ Government
The Super Fund is once again the nation’s largest single taxpayer following a $1.6 billion payment to the NZ Government in the first week of April.
Tax paid by the Fund now exceeds the Government’s required capital contribution to the Fund, a trend that is set to continue over the coming decade.
On Treasury’s current modelling, the Government will continue contributing to the Fund for the next 10 years; however, forecast contributions during that time of just under $2.5 billion are dwarfed by the $20+ billion in tax Treasury expects the Government will receive from the Fund.
Tax paid by the Fund for the 2025 financial year represents approximately 10 percent of the New Zealand’s corporate tax take and 1.4 percent of total tax paid.
Treasury’s modelling of the Fund’s contributions and withdrawals profile will be updated following the NZ Government’s Budget announcement in May.
Other tax news
Meanwhile, the Government has changed provisional tax rules so that from July 2026 the Super Fund will need to make only one provisional tax payment per year, instead of the three payments currently required.
As well as aligning the Fund and its wholly-owned subsidiaries with the approach applied to KiwiSaver funds, this change will reduce compliance costs; allow us to make a more accurate assessment of our provisional tax payments; and reduce the need for us to regularly liquidate investments to meet our NZ tax liabilities.
Thin capitalisation rules will also be changed so that overseas entities looking to invest in qualifying infrastructure projects will receive the same tax treatment as their New Zealand counterparts.
The current regime limits the amount of tax-deductible debt foreign investors can use to finance projects in New Zealand.
The National Business Review quoted Revenue Minister Simon Watts as saying the changes were designed to strike a better balance between protecting the New Zealand tax base and attracting necessary funding for economic growth.
Guardians Head of Tax John Payne told NBR that the changes removed one obstacle to overseas investment, but cautioned several other factors went into determining an investment opportunity’s attractiveness.
Nevertheless, Payne said, the Fund, which often sought co-investment from overseas partners, would be spreading the word that change was coming and New Zealand was “open for business”.
Genesis Energy re-enters portfolio following change to decarbonisation method
The Super Fund will no longer exclude companies with incidental or very low exposure to fossil fuel reserves from its listed equities portfolios, following a review of the methods it uses to meet its carbon targets.
The change means the Fund has now invested in NZX-listed Genesis Energy and can consider investing in climate change transition assets that may previously have been excluded. It also removes some operational complexity.
The Fund’s carbon targets are reviewed every five years, most recently last year. The Fund is currently ahead of target reductions in carbon emissions intensity and in potential emissions from fossil fuel reserves owned by the Fund, and is on track to achieve its goal of net zero by 2050.
Fossil fuel reserves had been subject to a blanket exclusion from the Fund’s listed equities portfolio as a means of meeting overall climate targets, and to reduce exposure to climate change-related investment risk. This blanket exclusion is no longer required to meet these targets, given the Fund’s passive global equity portfolio is now tracking MSCI indices that are aligned with the Paris Agreement and subject to ongoing decarbonisation.
Farewell to GHD House; open for business at the CPO from 11 May
After more than a decade in Zurich/Jarden/GHD House, we’re moving across Te Komititanga Square into our new offices in the Chief Post Office Building, above Waitematā train station, in downtown Auckland.
The new office will be open from 11 May. We’re looking forward to hosting stakeholders there later in the year, once we’re settled in. Our new physical address is Level 1, 12 Queen Street, Auckland 1010. Our postal address and other contact details will remain the same.
PEI Awards: NZ Super wins Limited Partner of the Year Award
In March the Super Fund was named by Private Equity International (PEI) magazine as its Asia-Pacific Limited Partner of the Year. PEI said the Fund became a “hot property” for General Partners after formally relaunching its buyout programme with a particular focus on the lower mid-market.
“At a time when many LPs are seeking to consolidate their GP relationships with a smaller number of – often larger, more established – managers, NZ Super has likely positioned itself as a top priority for US and European rainmakers in 2026 and beyond.”
The category runner-up was AustralianSuper.
NZ Super Fund at Pacific Islands Investment Forum
The Super Fund sponsored a recent meeting of the Pacific Islands Investment Forum (PIIF) ‘Women in Super’ network in Vanuatu.
Women in Super Steering Committee member and Sustainable Investment Analyst at the Guardians Laumanu Mafi, who was formerly on the investment team at the Retirement Board of Tonga, said the network was focused on capability-building, strengthening female participation in the superannuation industry and improving retirement outcomes for women.
“We value our partnership with PIIF and helping with this event was a great way to contribute to an important network of female investment and pension leaders.”
The Fund has been a member of PIIF, a group of 20 Pacific Island funds, for more than a decade. Excluding the Fund, PIIF members are responsible for investing around NZ$29 billion, with the largest funds being from Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
NZ Hotel sales progress
Brookfield Asset Management last month received Overseas Investment Office consent to buy the 280-room Rydges Wellington and the 84-room Sofitel Queenstown from NZ Hotel Holdings, which is 80 percent-owned by the NZ Super Fund.
Brookfield had previously announced it would invest approximately $250 million to acquire and reposition the two properties.
This transaction follows the sale last December of the QT in Auckland’s Viaduct for $87.5 million to ASX-listed hotel operator EVT. Four other properties in Christchurch, Rotorua and Auckland remain on the market.
Domestic expansion for Datacom
Datacom, Australasia’s largest home-grown tech company, recently announced it had bought T4’s Auckland data centre.
The Highbrook facility is the second Auckland site for Datacom, which is 45 percent-owned by the NZ Super Fund, and takes the Group’s total number of sovereign data centres across New Zealand to five.
Announcing the transaction, Datacom Chief Executive Greg Davidson said the acquisition reflects the growing importance of sovereign infrastructure as demand for data, AI and secure digital services accelerates.
Read Datacom’s full announcement here: https://nzsuperfund.cmail19.com/t/d-l-gullkn-hujkdust-u/
