An ASIC report notes the boom in demand for this asset, saying it heightens the need for “better-quality data” about the size of this sector where estimates range between $1.8 billion and $188 billion.
CPA Australia has weighed into the debate about the cost to oversee the industry, adding its voice to those who argue the fee structure favours the larger funds.
Allen returns to independent advisory role
(Pictured: Nicholas Allen)
The Australian country head of multi-affiliate manager Eaton Vance, Nicholas Allen, will return to his advisory and third-party marketing company, Allen Partners, next month, to be replaced by Duncan Hodnett, who has worked for the Boston-based manager in London for the past four years.
Allen, who represented Eaton Vance through Allen Partners prior to becoming an employee and establishing the Sydney office in December 2012, built the local business over the past five years, alongside Louise Bradshaw as marketing and business development manager and Chris Briant as CEO of affiliate Parametric, which previously had a small Sydney office. Parametric and its associate Hexavest operate largely autonomously from Eaton Vance. Combined, the group has more than $5 billion in Australian-sourced assets.
Allen Partners was founded in 2009 by Allen and Craig Gribble. There are three other partners and an advisory board chaired by Nicholas’s father, Ken, a successful businessman and former Australian Consul General in New York, and consulting advisor Steve Gibbs, a governance expert and former CEO of what is now Commonwealth Super Corporation.
For placements and third-party marketing, Allen Partners represents Thomas H Lee, Bridgepoint, Cheyne Capital and Colony Capital.
On the capital advisory side, the firm has done work for Azimut on Australian market entry, Forticode on software financing, various M&A activities, raising start-up capital and the proposal to build Sydney Zoo in western Sydney.
Hodnett, who starts in Sydney this month, was director of institutional business development for Eaton Vance in Europe. In Australia he will oversee both Eaton Vance and Hexavest. He has previously worked at Macquarie Bank and BT Investment Management in Australia and the UK.
