Summer New Zealand Fixed Interest
Summer New Zealand Fixed Interest fund performance summary as at 30 September 2025.
Fund at a glance
Unit price (as at 30 September 2025): $1.2655
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% | 1.91% | 0.89% | 2.10% | 4.04% | 4.30% |
| 17.50% | 2.19% | 1.02% | 2.41% | 4.64% | 4.94% |
| 10.50% | 2.38% | 1.11% | 2.62% | 5.04% | 5.36% |
^ 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 56.50% 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 1.24% for the month of September. For the 12 months to the end of September, the New Zealand Fixed Interest Fund delivered a return net of fees and before tax of 5.64%.
What happened in the markets that you invest in?
September was another positive month for investors in the New Zealand Fixed Interest Fund, with returns a combination of the fund’s yield-to-maturity and capital gains.
Lingering bullish momentum from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) September cut to the Official Cash Rate (OCR)—taking it to 3.00%—was reignited by June’s negative -0.90% gross domestic product (GDP) released in September; emboldened market participants repriced the terminal OCR rate lower at somewhere between 2.25% to 2.50% by year-end.
What are we thinking about the future?
Now that the RBNZ is on-track to nosedive monetary policy into an overtly stimulatory setting we’re likely to take a more cautious approach to portfolio management. Indeed, we’re tentatively thinking about the next leg in the economic cycle, which we expect to be mildly inflationary.
To be clear, we do not anticipate inflation to surprise to the upside as it did a few years ago, it’s more around our expectation of domestic inflation settling above 2.50%, rather than around the 2.00% official target, especially now that the regulator is priming the economy with cycle-low interest rates.
Indeed, we intend to trim our duration (portfolio interest rate sensitivity) target back from 5.0 years to closer to 4.50 years. We’re also shifting our focus away from nominal New Zealand Government bonds that pay a fixed coupon to New Zealand Government inflation bonds that yield a return based on inflation rates (actual and expected).
The fund’s gross yield to maturity, calculated as the weighted-average gross yield of all securities in the portfolio, was 3.80% 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+.
Along with adding New Zealand Government inflation-linked bonds to the portfolio we’ll also be selecting non-Government or credit securities that offer a return that we assess to be in- excess of our expected uptick inflation.
Over the next few months, we anticipate the larger share of investor returns will come from the portfolio's yield-to-maturity, rather than the continuation of out-sized capital gains, as more recently enjoyed by the fund’s investors.
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.
