Established in 1998, Booster Financial Services Limited is a Wellington based fund manager, recognised for responsible investing, including a number of ethical accreditations and partnerships.
Booster’s track record reflects a very capable investment approach utilising a mix of active and passive management, centred around diversification and direct ownership of assets.
In their April 2024 Portfolio Notes, the investment team describe their portfolios as being constructed using a “core + satellite” approach. This investment philosophy has been adopted with a strong awareness of downside risk management in clients’ portfolios. The ‘core’ allocations are broadly diversified across thousands of individual investments across countries, industries, and sectors to ensure portfolios are not overexposed to any single event. The ‘satellites’ are allocations to in-house active management positions or specialised external active managers.
- In 2005, Booster partnered with Rothschild Bank, based in Zurich, leveraging their research expertise to help create a tailored portfolio that is a unique offering only available to Booster clients. Rothschild focuses on owning the highest-quality businesses at attractive valuations that can compound their economic value over time. Core holdings include Microsoft and Amazon, and recently, Veralto – a global provider of solutions for water quality and product identification – was added to the portfolio.
- Based in California, Fisher Investments combines thematic analysis with stock selection. Their process is top-down driven, meaning macroeconomic factors are considered at the country, sector, and industry level before selecting companies for the portfolio. One thematic tailwind that has benefitted Fisher has been its allocation to large technology and semiconductor companies such as NVIDIA and ASML in anticipation of strong demand for AI applications.
- Intermede Investment Partners is a London-based bottom-up stock selector renowned for its research intensive process. Intermede invests in a portfolio of quality growth companies with excellent management teams, taking a patient and disciplined approach to buy these companies when they offer a significant discount to intrinsic value. Intermede has higher allocations to communications businesses such as Alphabet and META and recently added Uber and Netflix to the portfolio.
Alongside these specialist managers, Booster allocate a portion of global shares to active in-house positions. Booster aim to invest in sectors with favourable outlooks best positioned to outperform the prevailing economic environment. Over the past year, Booster have allocated to US technology and Global Semiconductor businesses, which have led the market higher on the back of robust earnings and benefitted from a strong demand environment.
Their offering also includes a unique proposition supporting New Zealand companies through specialist investment funds and innovation partnerships with Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Otago.
As an example of the company’s diverse approach, in 2023 Booster was awarded Public Trust Debt Deal of the Year at the IFINZ (Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand) Awards dinner. This recognised a great initiative that helped a local iwi, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, to fund the purchase of 40 school properties in the Wellington area from the crown, under a Treaty of Waitangi settlement covering these properties. These schools were then leased back to the Ministry of Education.
This is an investment approach utilising a mix of active and passive management, that many New Zealanders should be comfortable with, centred around diversification and direct ownership of assets but also utilising market index funds and asset managers, as well as risk management strategies, unlisted businesses, land, and private credit where appropriate.