In an attempt to de-politicise the increasingly tense debate around the future of super, research group Chant West has published a summary of its views across a range of recently raised questions and ill-informed commentary. Chant West, which last year had a changing of the guard with the takeover by Zenith Investment Partners, produced a…
Volumes have been written about the frustrations felt by value managers from the long performance drought endured by their investors because of the big tech stock boom for much of the past 10 years. But what the next chapter brings is still unknown. Signs are there that the rotation which started in the fourth quarter…
Custody and asset servicing outshone asset and wealth management profitability at Northern Trust globally in the December quarter, as interest income slumped 20 per cent and charges from a 500-person jobs cut program hit home. In an earnings call with brokers last week (January 21), Mike O’Grady, Northern’s chairman and chief executive, said: “Our asset…
After a review which took just over a year, State Street has been awarded the challenging asset servicing task of transitioning Perpetual Investment Management’s Australian funds management business. The ultimate prize may be to also take on the bigger asset base from the Perpetual group’s new US fund management subsidiaries. The announcement last week (January…
Amundi Asset Management, Europe’s largest fund manager, has reassessed global developments over the past three months and produced a new outlook paper for markets in 2021. The latest view is more bullish than the last. The €1.66 trillion (A$2.01 trillion) manager says in a client report, ‘Cross Asset Investment Strategy’, that it expects better corporate fundamentals…
While most investment managers have worked hard at incorporating ESG philosophies into their investment processes in recent years, under the overarching aim of sustainability, marrying the practicalities with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is not as simple as it may seem. Martin Currie, a long-time advocate of the integration of ESG principles within…
Notwithstanding some macro concerns, particularly around inflation, two of GSFM’s Australian managers – both with long/short strategies – have painted a bright picture for 2021 and beyond for investors. Munro Partners and Tribeca Investment Partners, growth managers which delivered returns of about 18 per cent for their equities long/short funds in 2020, appeared unfazed in…
Raewyn Williams has resigned from Parametric Portfolio Australia and will leave the firm at the end of February, after seven years there. She is Australia’s best-known exponent of after-tax investing, who has been a prolific producer of global and Australian research on the topic. It is understood Williams, the managing director, research, who started her…
Early research on ethnicity as well as gender by Willis Towers Watson should significantly broaden the discussion about potential economic benefits from improved diversity among boards and management at super funds, corporates and other organisations. In the first public airing of its latest thoughts on what it terms ‘cognitive diversity’, Willis Towers Watson (WTW) says:…
Australia remains tiny on a world scale for alternative investments, with just 1-2 per cent of the global market, despite having consistently good performance, particularly among private equity players. This is the view of Mark O’Hare, the founder and chief executive of Preqin. Speaking to more than 450 investors and managers in Australia and New…
