The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, the Crown entity that manages the $55b NZ Super Fund, has today announced the appointment of Joe Halapua to Manager – NZ Equities.

Mr Halapua will be responsible for managing the active internal New Zealand equities portfolio under the New Zealand equities mandate, and the Guardians’ NZ Equities team. 

Joining the Guardians in 2011, Mr Halapua is Chair of the Risk Committee and has worked across both the Direct Investment and External Investments & Partnerships teams managing a portfolio of mandates and investments across public and private markets. He currently serves on the Board of Australian retirement village operator RetireAustralia and is Chair of its Audit Committee.

Prior to this, Mr Halapua worked in Auckland as an Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs JBWere, where he was involved in mergers and acquisitions and capital market activity across New Zealand and Australia.

The NZ Equities team allocates capital primarily to listed investments across the NZX50, through active stock selection, capitalising on the fund’s endowments and unique position as a sovereign wealth fund.

Mr Halapua looks forward to working with the team to continue to add value to the NZ Super Fund and to cultivating quality relationships with listed corporates and market participants in New Zealand. 

The NZ Super Fund is one of the largest investors in NZX listed companies with ~$2 billion invested and holdings of more than $100 million in each of the following companies: A2 Milk, Auckland International Airport, Contact Energy, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Meridian Energy, Mercury NZ and Spark (as at 31 December 2020).

The Guardians manages the Fund’s NZ equities investments through a combination of in-house investment professionals and external investment managers: Mint Asset Management and Devon Funds Management.

NZ Equities is part of the Direct Investments Team and Mr Halapua will report to Head of Direct Investment, Will Goodwin.