Early days, but NZ Super's machine-learning fund outperforms

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund’s new machine-learning portfolio of New Zealand shares has exceeded expectations and managed to outperform its internally and actively managed NZ equities portfolio.

It is early days, with the machine-learning fund only about two years old and NZ Super having a very long-term perspective, but it is growing in confidence about the strategy’s usefulness, says NZ equities director Joe Halapua.

The portfolio began small but its allocation is growing and is currently capped at $250 million. To put that in context, the total NZ equities portfolio was valued at $2.91 billion at June 30 last year.

It is one of four NZ equities portfolios with the others being an internally managed passive portfolio, an internally managed active portfolio and the portfolio externally managed by Mint Asset Management which was valued at $717 million at June 30.