NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

'Nothing's far from home': New Morrison & Co boss Paul Newfield targets global infrastructure dominance

Hamish Rutherford
By Hamish Rutherford
Wellington Business Editor·NZ Herald·
21 Jul, 2021 05:20 AM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Paul Newfield, Morrison & Co's chief executive from January, says he never had a clear career plan. He agreed to join the asset manager after a single meeting with its founder. Photo / Supplied
Paul Newfield, Morrison & Co's chief executive from January, says he never had a clear career plan. He agreed to join the asset manager after a single meeting with its founder. Photo / Supplied

Paul Newfield, Morrison & Co's chief executive from January, says he never had a clear career plan. He agreed to join the asset manager after a single meeting with its founder. Photo / Supplied

A philosophy graduate who led Morrison & Co's expansion across the Tasman says the asset manager wants to be as big in the Northern Hemisphere as the South by the time he leaves.

On Wednesday Paul Newfield was announced as Morrison & Co's third chief executive in 33 years, replacing Marko Bogoievski from the start of 2022.

Bogoievski, who joined the Wellington-based manager from Spark, had headed Morrison & Co since 2009 when its founder stepped back due to ill health. He will continue to have a role with the business.

Newfield, who has spent most of the past decade based in Sydney as its head of New Zealand and Australia said the aim was to become the global leader in its field.

Read More

  • Morrison & Co teams up with Australian investors to buy into Telstra's mobile tower business - ...
  • Investment manager Morrison & Co names its third chief executive in 33 years - NZ Herald
  • Infratil shares surge after AustralianSuper makes $5 billion takeover offer - NZ Herald
  • Infratil says it is business as usual, but ready to roll, as it switches chief executive - NZ H...
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Our plan is for Morrison & Co to be the global leader in infrastructure and for the Northern Hemisphere to be as big as the Southern Hemisphere by the time I hand over," Newfield said.

Make it your business to know

Start your day with the latest business headlines straight to your inbox.
Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time.
By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Generally low profile, Morrison & Co is best known in New Zealand as the manager of Infratil, the $5 billion NZX-listed fund which owns a range of assets from data centres to a majority of Wellington Airport and Trustpower and half of Vodafone New Zealand.

Morrison & Co said on Wednesday it now managed $21.5 billion, up from around $2.9b when Bogoievski became its chief executive.

Around 10 per cent of the company's assets were currently in the Northern Hemisphere and while the focus was further afield, it would continue to try to grow in Australasia, Newfield said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We'd like, as Marko would say, 'to walk and chew gum [at the same time]'. So I think Australia and New Zealand will keep growing, but there's a lot more growth potential for us in the UK, Europe, America and Asia."

The types of areas Morrison & Co would look to invest in were unlikely to change, but would probably be more narrow than its Australasian investments, which range from property and airports to data centres and telecommunications businesses.

"While we can play pretty broadly at home, given all our home field advantages, the further we get from home, the more we focus on areas where we're the best in the world," Newfield said. "That means decarbonisation, renewable energy, digital infrastructure."

Morrison & Co was likely to continue to seek out local partners to invest alongside in the Northern Hemisphere. When the company looked for new investments in Australia for Infratil a decade ago "we worked out that Infratil could be more successful when it had Australian institutions investing alongside it, so I expect a continuation of that as we get to the Northern Hemisphere."

The name plate outside Morrison & Co's headquarters in Wellington. Photo / Hamish Rutherford
The name plate outside Morrison & Co's headquarters in Wellington. Photo / Hamish Rutherford

There were no plans on creating another listed vehicle like Infratil.

"That's not on the cards at the moment. Infratil is a great vehicle. It's delivered outstanding returns for its investors over a long period of time and those investors have had a good experience by backing Morrison & Co as we've gone into new places."

Morrison & Co would continue to work with the board of Infratil to deliver for the fund but "in terms of other products from Morrison & Co, most of the demand that we see from institutions at the moment is actually for unlisted, rather than listed, funds to invest in infrastructure".

'I never had a career plan'

Newfield studied philosophy at the University of Auckland - his masters thesis was Nietzsche's Philosophy of Love - before completing a master of philosophy in management at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I would never say it in a job interview, but I've got the job now. I've never really had a great career plan. I studied philosophy because I like the way it stretched my brain."

After university he joined Boston Consulting Group working in "M&A and corporate finance assignments for major corporations in Australia, New Zealand and Europe", a profile supplied by Morrison & Co states.

While there, a former colleague from Boston Consulting who had joined Morrison & Co, Rachel Drew, suggested he meet Lloyd Morrison, the charismatic founder.

"I had one coffee with him and he said, 'oh, you should think about coming to work with me. If you don't, you're an idiot', and the deal was done."

Newfield believed Morrison & Co still had some of the original characteristics ingrained by its founder, who died in 2012.

"What Lloyd exuded was the sense of unlimited potential. If you back yourself and you back your colleagues, you can take on the world.

"If you think about Marko's era, that's what we've done. We got into Australia, we backed ourselves and we've taken on and beaten that market, and that's exactly what we're doing now in North America with businesses like Longroad [Energy], it's exactly what we're doing in Europe."

It is not the first time Morrison & Co has targeted Europe though its efforts have not always been successful, losing heavily on investments in European airports.

Newfield said the asset manager had learned much from the deal and had a different approach to investing internationally.

"Nothing's far from home for us anymore," Newfield said, with the European Airports investment "a deal we did, fly in, fly out" transaction.

"Now, our boots are on the ground in the markets we operate in. We've got great teams that are a mixture of people we've transferred, who are really entrenched in our culture, then hire the best people in each market. I think we've got all the right ingredients."

Newfield said Infratil's move into Australia showed what could be done, claiming Morrison & Co was now dominant in that market.

"If you look at the stats now, we're actually bigger in terms of people and capital Macquarie are in Australia [in infrastructure]. In the last six months, I just looked at the league tables, Morrison & Co was in five of the seven largest infrastructure deals in Australia. Macquarie did two and the rest of our competition were nowhere.

"We've proven we can succeed well away from home."

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Business

Media InsiderUpdated

Public film agency's global missions: 'You won't see any photos of us drinking'

09 Jul 05:19 PM
Premium
Media Insider

Plot twist: Taxpayer-backed Jacinda Ardern movie scrapped

09 Jul 05:11 PM
Premium
Technology

Funding gap: Kiwi game developers missing out on part of $40m annual tax rebate

09 Jul 05:00 PM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
Public film agency's global missions: 'You won't see any photos of us drinking'
Media Insider

Public film agency's global missions: 'You won't see any photos of us drinking'

09 Jul 05:19 PM
The challenge the All Blacks face ahead of second French test
All Blacks

The challenge the All Blacks face ahead of second French test

09 Jul 05:10 PM
'They burned me': Auckland woman scarred after facial treatment at beauty clinic
New Zealand

'They burned me': Auckland woman scarred after facial treatment at beauty clinic

09 Jul 05:00 PM
Man cycling across Oz to honour NZ doctor who saved his life before dying in quake
Christchurch

Man cycling across Oz to honour NZ doctor who saved his life before dying in quake

09 Jul 05:00 PM
Rainbow Warrior: 40 years on – why France attacked Greenpeace and NZ
Crime

Rainbow Warrior: 40 years on – why France attacked Greenpeace and NZ

09 Jul 05:00 PM

Latest from Business

Public film agency's global missions: 'You won't see any photos of us drinking'

Public film agency's global missions: 'You won't see any photos of us drinking'

09 Jul 05:19 PM

The NZ Film Commission front-foots more than $300k of international travel in 2025.

Premium
Plot twist: Taxpayer-backed Jacinda Ardern movie scrapped

Plot twist: Taxpayer-backed Jacinda Ardern movie scrapped

09 Jul 05:11 PM
Premium
Funding gap: Kiwi game developers missing out on part of $40m annual tax rebate

Funding gap: Kiwi game developers missing out on part of $40m annual tax rebate

09 Jul 05:00 PM
'Terrific outcome': 189 staff from New World destroyed by fire learn of new job options

'Terrific outcome': 189 staff from New World destroyed by fire learn of new job options

09 Jul 06:43 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search