9 Dec 2014

More options after SuperLife purchase

7:57 am on 9 December 2014

NZX will give New Zealand investors more long-term investment options following the purchase of SuperLife, a passive pension fund manager.

The financial markets operator will buy SuperLife for up to $35 million, increasing its funds under management to over $1.6 billion.

SuperLife currently manages $1.27 billion of superannuation, KiwiSaver and other managed investments products, on behalf of 41,000 members.

Chief executive Tim Bennett, said NZX's existing $400m passive fund tracks the NZX-50 index, but it will now have the scale necessary to offer different types of ETFs, or exchange-traded-funds.

NZX willl issue 10 million shares and borrow $10m to buy SuperLife for an initial $20m.

It will pay up to $15m more in a mix of shares and cash if targets are met over the next three years.