Kiwibank has confirmed it's buying Gareth Morgan's investment business, including his KiwiSaver Scheme.
GMI currently manages more than $1.5 billion, of which, $650 million to KiwiSaver.
The investment company has more than 57,000 clients.
“GMI’s core values of trust and honesty, transparency, respect for clients’ interests and the continual pursuit of excellence mirror Kiwibank’s values of doing what’s right, making it easy and raising the bar,” says Kiwibank chief executive Paul Brock.
“The aligned values of both organisations reinforced the decision to buy rather than build, and we are delighted to have GMI as part of the Kiwibank group and the ongoing participation of its principals,"
Kiwibank's own KiwiSaver scheme has around 15,000 customers.
GMI will operate under the Kiwibank Wealth and Insurance line of business as a stand-alone entity.
Dr Morgan will remain a member of the investment strategy team, and both GMI principals, Gareth Morgan and Andrew Gawith, will remain directors of GMI alongside two Kiwibank-appointed directors.
Dr Morgan is known for his forthright economic rationalist views, and philanthropy after his big pay-day as an early investor in online auction site Trade Me when it was sold to Fairfax Media for some $700 million.
Kiwibank targeted wealth management in 2009 when it teamed up with AMP Capital with four actively managed funds. It later ditched Mercer as the distributor of its KiwiSaver scheme, replacing it with AMP Capital.
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