Summer New Zealand Fixed Interest
Summer New Zealand Fixed Interest fund performance summary as at 31 August 2025.
Fund at a glance
Unit price (as at 31 August 2025): $1.2500
Date the fund started: 19 September 2016
For information on fees, see our Fees page.
For more information on the Summer New Zealand Fixed Interest fund read the latest quarterly fund update and the product disclosure statement.
Fund objective and strategy
See the New Zealand Fixed Interest page for the Summary of investment objective and strategy.
Fund returns
| PIR | Total since inception (annualised) | 1 Month | 3 Month | 1 Year | 3 Years^ |
| 28% | 1.83% | 0.84% | 1.71% | 3.63% | 3.63% |
| 17.50% | 2.09% | 0.96% | 1.96% | 4.16% | 4.16% |
| 10.50% | 2.27% | 1.04% | 2.13% | 4.51% | 4.52% |
^ Annualised
Fund returns are calculated net of fund charges, trading expenses and accrued tax for a New Zealand resident individual paying tax at the Prescribed Investor Rate identified above.
Top 10 investments
The top 10 investments make up 56.87% of the fund.
Manager's Commentary
How did your portfolio perform?
The Summer New Zealand Fixed Interest Fund (the fund) delivered a return net of fees and before tax of 1.17% for the month of August. For the 12 months to the end of August, the New Zealand Fixed Interest Fund delivered a return net of fees and before tax of 5.04%.
What happened in the markets that you invest in?
August was another positive month for investors in the New Zealand Fixed Interest Fund, with returns a function of the fund’s yield-to-maturity and capital gains.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) August Monetary Policy Statement delivered a further 0.25% cut to the Official Cash Rate (OCR) and an unexpected lowering of the terminal OCR to 2.50%; resultant market activity was to push term interest rates and bond yields to cycle lows.
What are we thinking about the future?
T There is no change to our current thinking. We continue to believe that it is too simplistic a thesis that lower interest rates will mechanically result in a material lift in New Zealand’s economic performance. Unfortunately, it has proven to be the case.
We believe that economic uncertainty remains in many domestic households and that wary consumers will save (or prioritise debt reduction by keeping mortgage payments constant) rather than spend interest rate and income tax windfalls: we call this a liquidity trap. Furthermore, add in global economic and political uncertainty from the US and in the Middle East and Ukraine and we can see why households and businesses would prefer to watch, worry, and wait.
The fund’s gross yield to maturity, calculated as the weighted-average gross yield of all securities in the portfolio, was 4.00% and the weighted-average portfolio credit quality was AA- (where a security does not have an external credit rating, we assign an internal credit rating based on our assessment). We use the lowest available credit rating for New Zealand Government bonds, Fitch’s AA+.
We intend to remain fully invested by targeting a portfolio duration greater than 5.0 years, compared the fund’s current index duration of around 4.8 years.
Our strategy is to accumulate New Zealand Government bonds while maintaining some targeted exposure to short-dated and preferred non-Government securities. Corporate bond spreads remain tight, near long-term averages, despite the obvious current economic risks, in our opinion. We favour ‘hard duration’ Government bonds and proxies for better protection against the potential for market dysfunction. This approach should continue delivering capital gains complementing the fund’s gross yield-to-maturity.
This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any financial product and does not take your personal circumstances into account. All opinions reflect our judgement on the date of communication and may change without notice. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. We recommend you take financial advice before making investment decisions. We have prepared this web page in good faith based on information obtained from other sources, but we do not guarantee the accuracy of that information. We do not make any representation or warranty (express or implied) that this web page is accurate, complete, or current and to the maximum extent permitted by law disclaim any liability for loss which may be incurred by any person relying on this web page.
