BT Funds Management (NZ) hired Colchester Global Investors, Wellington Management and BlueBay Asset Management to manage the firm's A$1.6 billion ($1.3 billion) fixed-income portfolio, confirmed Matthew Goldsack, BTNZ's head of investment solutions.
BTNZ is a specialist, multiasset fund manager. Colchester will manage A$500 million in sovereign bonds. Mr. Goldsack said Wellington will manage A$800 million and BlueBay, A$300 million.
Mr. Goldsack said BlueBay is investing in credit only, while Wellington's mandate covers the full fixed-income universe.
Materials regarding BT Funds Management investment strategies show Wellington was among the portfolio's previous manager lineup, along with Standish Mellon Asset Management and Kapstream Capital. Spokesmen for Standish Mellon and Kapstream didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a Colchester news release Wednesday, Mr. Goldsack said BTNZ's mandate for Colchester was designed with "a wide degree of allocation flexibility," leaving room for the manager "to take advantage of opportunities within the sovereign universe."
The latest mandate brings Colchester's assets on behalf of clients in Australia and New Zealand to more than A$5 billion, noted Paul Allen, the firm's Singapore-based managing director for the region, in the news release.