"One of the things that's apparent to us is that, in the retirement village area, the bricks-and-mortar side of the business is doing extremely well but there's no cross-pollination with the care side of the business when it comes to pay and conditions," he said.
Changing times at AMP Capital
Big changes are afoot at AMP Capital, one of New Zealand's largest institutional investors.
And while it's not clear exactly what's going on, plenty of speculation is drifting about in the funds management industry.
This week the New Zealand Superannuation Fund announced it had terminated AMP's almost $260 million active equities management mandate, which it had held since 2003.
This followed a string of resignations by senior AMP staff, the most recent being long-serving senior portfolio manager Douglas Lau, who the company says is leaving for "personal reasons".
Former deputy head of equities John Phipps left this year to establish a boutique fund management company called Forte with Darryl Briggs, formerly an investment strategist at Harbour Asset Management.
It's understood that Lau will be joining Phipps and Briggs at Forte.
Senior equity analyst John Middleton also left AMP last month to take up a position with ANZ.
In a letter to clients, AMP - whose New Zealand investment arm has about $18 billion under management - said it was conducting a review into "how best to deliver" its equity management services.
The company said Lau's responsibilities would be taken over by head of equities Guy Elliffe and senior analyst Jonathan Davis.
Passive approach
An AMP Capital spokeswoman said it was too early to comment on what the outcome of the review might be.
But industry sources believe the firm could be moving away from active stock selection towards more passive funds management.
That approach is much less labour intensive as passive investment portfolios simply track stock indices, so analysts and the like are not required.
"We're hearing quite clearly that they're moving to a passive approach," said a source.
The source said that shift would help explain the Super Fund's ditching of AMP, which had an active mandate for managing the fund's equities.
Neither AMP or the Super Fund would say why the mandate was terminated.
The Super Fund is searching for a new investment manager, and in the meantime, its in-house team is looking after investments formerly managed by AMP.
Meanwhile, AMP has been reducing its stake in several NZX50 companies including Pumpkin Patch, A2 Milk, Skellerup and Tower, according to substantial security holder notices this week.
The spokeswoman said the stock movements were nothing out of the ordinary.
IPO push
Plenty of work is going on behind the scenes as several companies push to go public before Christmas.
Software firm Orion Health is to list on November 26, and cancer screening technology developer TruScreen is to carry out a compliance listing on the NZAX alternative market on Tuesday.
Orion's bookbuild, an auction-style process with institutional investors that will set the final pricing of the offer, started yesterday.
NZME., the recently renamed local arm of APN News & Media - whose businesses include the New Zealand Herald, Newstalk ZB and daily deal website GrabOne - is making roadshow presentations to fund managers and brokers on both sides of the Tasman.
Chief executive Jane Hastings said a decision on the float was yet to be made.
Other possible pre-Christmas listings include Arvida, a merger of privately owned Kiwi retirement villages, and Evolve Education Group, a roll-up of New Zealand childcare businesses.
