TDB Advisory has released its annual Iwi Investment Report, reviewing the corporate structures, investment strategies and financial performance of ten iwi in New Zealand. The ten iwi covered in this year’s report, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngati Porou, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Raukawa, Tūhoe and Waikato-Tainui, collectively manage approximately $8.5 billion in assets, representing around 70% of all settlement-derived iwi assets nationally.

FY2025 marked a third consecutive year of difficulty for the iwi economy. The ten iwi collectively achieved a capital-weighted return on invested capital (RoIC) of 3.9%, a modest improvement on FY2024 and comfortably positive, though still below the long-run weighted average of 6.8%. Eight iwi recorded positive returns and two recorded negative outcomes.

Performance diverged materially across the cohort. Ngāi Tahu (8.6%), Ngāti Toa (8.1%) and Raukawa (8.1%) led the group. Ngāi Tahu’s result reflected broad-based operating improvement, particularly in its farming business on higher cow yields and favourable farmgate prices. Ngāti Toa’s outcome was driven by a $69 million fair value gain on its Crown leaseback investment property portfolio. Raukawa’s strong result was supported by a higher operating surplus, stronger contributions from partnerships and associates, and positive valuation movements across its dairy and financial asset holdings.

Ngāpuhi, Tūhoe and Ngāti Awa recorded mid-range returns of 4% to 6%. Waikato-Tainui (1.7%) and Ngati Porou (2.3%) recorded lower single-digit results. Ngāti Pāhauwera (-4.6%) and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei (-2.3%) both recorded negative returns, reflecting a mix of valuation declines, the wind-down of government recovery contracts and continued softness in Auckland property markets.

Several strategic themes continued to gain definition. Iwi increasingly recycled capital out of non-core holdings into higher-conviction opportunities in renewable energy, property development and growth-oriented financial assets. Partnership and co-investment models grew in prominence, with iwi accessing scale and specialist capability through structured joint ventures. Financial assets continued their rise as an asset class, overtaking primary industries to become the second largest in aggregate, driven by growing allocations to private equity and globally diversified managed funds.

Over the ten years to FY2025, the iwi collectively delivered indexed cumulative returns of 1.9x (FY2015 = 1.0), exceeding both the CPI plus 2% (1.6x) and the 90-day Treasury bill (1.3x) benchmarks and outperforming a domestic, sector-aligned reference portfolio (1.7x), though they trailed the NZ Super Fund’s globally diversified reference portfolio (2.3x).

All ten iwi continued to provide distributions and community benefits to their members during the year, funding education, health, cultural and environmental programmes alongside direct grants.