New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Auckland, hired BlackRock to manage four passive global equity allocations for the NZ$23 billion (US$18 billion) fund.
BlackRock manages passive global mandates for New Zealand in large-cap, small-cap and emerging markets equities, and REITs.
Those equity allocations come three years after New Zealand Superannuation awarded BlackRock passive global fixed-income allocations that track aggregate, emerging markets sovereign, corporate and inflation-linked bond indexes.
Asked about the size of the new allocations, Mark Fennell, New Zealand Superannuation's general manager portfolio completion, in an e-mail, declined to provide details beyond saying the allocations were “flexible,” and noting that the fund limits its allocations to any single money management firm to 20% of the portfolio's net asset value.
The new allocations will give New Zealand “additional capacity while providing the fund with further flexibility and diversification benefits,” Mr. Fennell said in a news release Monday.
The new allocations do not involve any shifts in asset allocation, and aren't related to the terminations of other managers serving New Zealand Superannuation, Mr. Fennell said in the e-mail.
The new BlackRock allocations “give us more capacity to achieve our desired passive exposure to global equities through direct physical holdings as opposed to synthetically, e.g. through total return swaps,” Mr. Fennell wrote.
“We are always looking to get our exposures as economically as possible regardless of the access point, Mr. Fennell said, adding that the BlackRock appointments “will give us additional capacity to source our passive beta exposure from whichever option is the most cost-effective at the time.”
Jason Collins, a Sydney-based managing director, institutional client business, at BlackRock couldn't be reached immediately for comment.