‘Once-in-a-decade’ events are becoming more and more common, but avoiding them altogether is just one way of protecting portfolios. ART is building new capabilities to absorb their impact – and come back from them even stronger.
With almost 50 per cent of its nearly $100 billion FUM now internally managed, Cbus has seen fees come down and gained more control over its ever-growing portfolio. But in hindsight it “could have pushed a bit harder”.
eSecLending closes Australian office
(Pictured: Giselle Awad)
eSecLending, the world’s largest non-bank-aligned securities lending firm, has closed its Australian office and is expected to revert to servicing the APAC region from Boston and London.
Giselle Awad, a former trader at RBC in Australia, the US and UK, had been the Australasian representative for eSecLending for the past five years, based in Sydney. She declined to comment except to say she wished the company and its clients well. Simon Lee, who is based in London but who is familiar with the Australian and Asian markets, filling in for Awad last year when she was on maternity leave, also declined to comment.
eSecLending was acquired by private equity firm Parthenon in conjunction with former State Street securities lending guru Craig Starble in August last year. Starble became the firm’s chief executive.
It is understood the Australian office closure followed a review of global operations by Parthenon and the new management.
In its announcement last August, Parthenon said: “Founded in 2000 to provide an alternative approach to securities lending, eSecLending is the largest independent securities lending agent. Their clients include asset managers, pension funds, insurance companies, and corporations, whose combined assets under management exceed $2 trillion. Having auctioned close to $3 trillion in assets since inception, eSecLending is widely recognized as the auction leader in the industry, bringing the only transparent, disciplined and repeatable trading process to securities lending.”
