Devon Funds has bumper year

Milford's Anthony Quirk was pleased with his firm's performance across a range of retail funds. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Firm says it’s been a great year for stock pickers and praises its investment team.

Auckland's Devon Funds Management has had a bumper year in the New Zealand and Australasian equities space, with two of its funds posting nearly 30 per cent returns.

And Salt Funds Management, which received a $690 million external management mandate from AMP Capital last month, is nipping at Devon's heels, according to a survey of wholesale investment funds, which are aimed at large-scale investors, by consultancy Aon Hewitt.

Devon's Equity Income, Trans-Tasman and NZ Core funds returned 29.6 per cent, 27.1 per cent, and 25.5 per cent, respectively, in the year to March 31.

The returns are before taxes and fees.

Salt's Dividend Appreciation, NZ Plus Share and Javelin funds posted annual returns of 26.9 per cent, 21.5 per cent and 20.8 per cent, the survey said.

Over the same period the NZX 50 gross index returned about 14 per cent.

Devon principal Paul Glass said the results were a credit to the firm's investment team.

"We're active stock pickers and it's been a great environment for stock picking," Glass said.

"Even though the Australian economy has been doing it reasonably tough, the guys have done a fantastic job of finding some really good quality investments across there."

Milford Asset Management didn't have such a great year in the New Zealand and Australasian category, with returns from its NZ Equities fund falling to 5.9 per cent from 31.3 per cent in the previous year.

Milford managing director Anthony Quirk said it was important to recognise that the survey covered wholesale, rather than retail, funds.

"We're really pleased with our performance across a range of retail funds," he said.

The survey said Milford's Trans-Tasman fund posted an 11 per cent return.

However, the Auckland-based fund manager - which is being investigated by the Financial Markets Authority for alleged market manipulation - had the best performing balanced fund in the survey, with a 17.6 per cent return.

Devon and Milford also came first equal in the Australian Only equity category, both posting an 18.4 per cent annual return.

Milford's were the best-performing balanced and moderate funds in Morningstar's latest KiwiSaver survey, with returns of 17.1 per cent and 17.3 per cent in the year to March 31.

Milford confirmed in February that one of its employees was being investigated over "certain specific trades".

This month, the FMA said it expected to complete the final steps of the investigation, which followed a referral from sharemarket operator NZX, in the next few weeks.