Asset AllocationSeptember 12, 2023

NZ Super Acquires 5% Stake in Belgium’s Euroclear

The $38 billion Kiwi pension fund is now the 5th largest shareholder in the securities clearinghouse.

Reported by Michael Katz

The NZ$65 billion ($38.15 billion) New Zealand Superannuation Fund announced it has acquired a 4.99% stake in Brussels-based securities clearinghouse Euroclear, although it did not reveal how much it paid for the investment.

Euroclear, which provides post-trade services that include transaction settlement, asset servicing and collateral management, has approximately 36 trillion euros ($38.6 trillion) of assets under custody. The Euroclear group includes Euroclear Bank—an international central securities depository—and it operates the national central securities depositories in Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.K.

Although financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, in May 2022, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. announced that it sold its 9.85% stake in Euroclear to Québecois pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement and Belgian sovereign wealth fund Société Fédérale de Participations et d’Investissement for 709 million euros. At that valuation, NZ Super’s nearly 5% stake would be worth approximately 360 million euros.

“Euroclear is the leading settlement provider across a number of European and international markets,” NZ Super Head of Direct Investments Will Goodwin said in a release. “It is an attractive, high-performing asset which suits our growth profile and will help diversify our investment portfolio.”

Goodwin said the deal, which makes NZ Super Euroclear’s fifth-largest shareholder, provided a rare opportunity for the super fund to increase its exposure to the global financial services sector.