Three in a row caps broker’s decade
Asked to explain his firm’s remarkable track record at the INFINZ Awards, First NZ Capital chief executive James Lee points to a great team and a customer focus that is backed up by the investment to deliver it.
First NZ has won the Milford Asset Management Sharebroking Firm of the Year award for the past three years in a row — and eight times in the past decade.
The award is determined by voting among the largest NZ based fund managers which actively invest in Australasian equities.
Those institutions noted that First NZ Capital had the best overall research and execution of service during the year. Consistently high levels of service and depth of offerings were noted, along with an active approach to the ongoing development of their services.
“We’re a New Zealand based business and because of that we get to control the decisions we make here to suit the New Zealand context,” Lee says. “We get the benefit of being domestically owned and have been for 15 years. We’re not afraid to invest in the markets as they grow.”
First NZ Capital traces its roots back to R.A. Jarden & Co, established in 1961 by Ron Jarden, a stockbroker, businessman and star All Black who played 16 tests between 1951 and 1956.
The company has been active under various names ever since, and became First NZ Capital in 2002 following an employee buyout of Credit Suisse Group’s New Zealand operations.
Lee said he had the benefit of a great team, noting that First NZ’s head of research, Arie Dekker, has now been recognised by INFINZ as Research Analyst of the Year for three years running.
“We’re very focused on what’s important to our customers and we’ve been investing heavily in the past seven years to ensure that we can deliver that.”
Lee says he believes NZ capital markets are in a good space.
The country has a solid economic base, more diversity and “yield remains high on the agenda for global investors so New Zealand, with a high cashflow basis for its companies, good stable earnings and good governance has been a real focus point.
“From an investment banking point of view, the environment is stable and it’s been conducive. I wouldn’t say it was easy and I wouldn’t describe it as a bull market at all.
“People are still making very careful, considered decisions about what they are doing.
“It’s a good stable environment and that's the key for us . . . it isn't in boom or bust territory. It’s just nice stable growth and I think that’s where everyone would rather it be.”