Fisher Funds’ listed vehicles, Barramundi and Marlin, face their worst annual returns in two decades, prompting internal review amid a resilient but uneven NZ market.
Fisher Funds’ listed vehicles have had a bruising year, with Barramundi describing the 2026 financial year as its worst in two decades and Marlin also badly lagging the market, according to reporting from the New Zealand Herald. Barramundi’s total shareholder return fell 7.6% even as its benchmark index rose almost 31%, while Marlin also delivered a return of minus 7.6%. The performance came despite a wider rally in equities, leaving both funds well behind broader market gains.
In her note to shareholders, Barramundi chairperson Olivia Oliver said the result was “very disappointing” and called it “the worst performance by the company in its 20-year history”. She also said the board was disappointed and working closely with the manager to make sure the portfolio is positioned to improve. In Barramundi’s annual report, the board said its management agreement with Fisher Funds, which was renewed in 2021 for a five-year term ending on October 25, 2026, was under review at the time the report was written. The directors said the outcome would not be known until after the annual report had been issued.
Oliver used similarly blunt language about Marlin, saying in a shareholder update that “Marlin has not performed well during the 2026 financial year,” repeating the point in the same paragraph. She added that, for a second straight year, the actively managed Marlin portfolio had underperformed market indices. The comparison was especially stark given the broader equity rebound, highlighting how hard it has been for some active managers to keep pace in a rising market.
The weakness in Fisher Funds’ listed vehicles comes against a broader backdrop of mixed but often resilient results across New Zealand companies. Ebos Group lifted half-year underlying revenue by 13% and reaffirmed earnings guidance, Briscoe Group posted record annual sales despite a dip in profit, Scales Corp more than tripled annual profit, Freightways lifted revenue and margins, and The Warehouse Group reported higher half-year profit even as it warned on margin pressure. Taken together, those results suggest an uneven market rather than a single broad-based downturn, which makes the underperformance of Barramundi and Marlin stand out even more.
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