Index providers should face the same regulatory hurdles as investment managers, a new US legal paper argues. In the US, plain-vanilla indexers are regarded as information ‘publishers’. The University of Virginia School of Law (UVS) report says most index providers are de facto ‘investment advisers’ – a term under US law that includes fund managers…
Investors should increase allocations to active management strategies against an increasingly uncertain global backdrop, according to a new Willis Towers Watson (WTW) report. It is a “cyclically fertile ground for alpha”. The WTW analysis, ‘Outlook 2021’, says “skilled active management offers growing value for money” as a number of factors converge to add risk to…
Real asset investors are turning to face the strange environment of 2021 as technological and social trends mix with a global pandemic to fast-forward fundamental changes, according to the latest AMP Capital market outlook. “Disruption has accelerated changes underway in modern living – and the pandemic is still far from over,” the AMP Capital report…
Interim Mercer NZ chief investment officer, Ronan McCabe, has been upgraded to permanent following a long recruitment process to replace, Philip Houghton-Brown. The Sydney-based McCabe stepped into the breach last September when Houghton-Brown departed for the head of investment solutions role at BT Funds. Post the official internal promotion, he continues to hold his previous…
US-based niche thematic fund firm Ark Investment Management has jumped ahead of global giants BlackRock and State Street in exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows in January, according to a Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI) report. The SWFI report says Ark, which runs seven ETFs based on ‘disruptive technology’ themes, took in US$1 billion on a single…
Maple-Brown Abbott’s affiliated listed infrastructure management firm is turning off gas and switching more to electric as the world adjusts to a low-carbon energy future. In a paper published last month (January 25), the Sydney-based Global Listed Infrastructure says its analysis suggests electric utilities will be the major beneficiaries of global climate change energy policies…
The NZ Superannuation Fund has slightly lifted both long-term outperformance and risk expectations in its latest ‘reference portfolio’ review while removing an explicit emerging markets benchmark from the process.
Northern Trust has won another passive global equities gig with a bank-owned KiwiSaver fund following a mandate reshuffle at the Westpac scheme in New Zealand. Australia’s Ninety One was also a winner in the reshuffle. Along with several other changes, Northern Trust picked up a spot among six managers on the Westpac/BT international equities panel,…
Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham has called bubble on the longest bull market in history. In a searing client newsletter, ‘Waiting for the Last Dance’, Grantham says current market conditions that feature “extreme overvaluation, explosive price increases, frenzied issuance, and hysterically speculative investor behavior” bear all the hallmarks of a last-gasp bubble expansion. The founder of…
Almost all global pension investors expect post-COVID financial markets to follow a ‘W’ path or play an accordion-like tune, a new survey has found. Whatever the shape of the future, it will not be smooth. The study, by UK-based research firm Create, shows almost half of the respondents projected a W-shaped recovery ahead while 36…
