A new report “from the coalface” of super fund investing has gone some way to quantifying the cost of shonky investment management, with members potentially losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Surging equity markets have driven the Future Fund’s return higher, but its prediction that inflation will be stickier than expected has been born out and it “remains conscious of the potential for significant deterioration”.
Kalman ups the ante in offshore distribution
Harvey Kalman, the long-time head of sales and business at Equity Trustees, has taken back all international responsibilities to cater for fund managers and other institutions looking for Australian trustee and admin services, as well as for Australian firms looking to expand offshore.
“We’re now taking this to the next level,” he said last week (on August 28). “We are focussed on what is a fantastic opportunity for Australian fund managers to set up vehicles in Ireland, London and Europe… We don’t export enough from Australia.”
Kalman, the director, fund services, at Equity Trustees, said the firm established its business in the UK in 2017 because it found it too difficult to compete with UCITs and Cayman Islands funds. Equity Trustees now has its own UCITs vehicles as well as a range of new unit trust structures. “It has been an ambition of mine for several years for Australians to export their fund management skills,” he said. “At the moment, if you want to expand into Asia, you still have to do it through UCITs funds in Luxembourg or Dublin.”
Last year he contracted Rob Harrison, a former head of the BNP Paribas investment management business in Australia, who had been living in New York for some years, to help source and cater for inbound offshore managers looking to set up in Australia. After the contract ended Harrison decided to return home to Sydney and established a new third-party distribution business, ‘3PD’, with another former BNP Paribas colleague, Steve Larkin. They announced their first US-based client, a celebrated Boston-based ESG specialist manager, Promethos Capital, earlier this month. Kalman will remain based in Melbourne but take on additional responsibilities for the US.
Unfortunately, Harrison and his family are stuck in the US at the moment but are hopeful of getting back soon, he said this month. Kalman said: “I’d like to help Rob and Steve set up as many funds as they can.”
– G.B.
