One of the problems institutional investors and managers have faced in acting on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), launched in 2015, is that they are not all easily investable. Investors have had to feel their way around the 17 overarching goals and 170 targets to put their ESG philosophies and processes into a…
While investing following strong and integrated ESG principles does not readily spring to mind when considering China there is more action going on across the sustainability space there than many people think. The building blocks are already in place: a growing green credit market that is encouraging companies to invest in ESG-related projects, strategic government…
Acquisitive Auckland-based backoffice specialist MMC, which bought 50 per cent of Brisbane-based super admin firm IFAA in March, has refreshed its brand in a makeover that consigns the Aegis platform name to history. To be known as MMC Wealth Administration, the Aegis investment platform acquired from ASB last year now sits beside the company’s traditional…
A tried and true allocation of 60 per cent growth assets and 40 per cent defensive, if still in use by advisors, presents “serious risks to advisors and their clients”, according to Jerome Lander, portfolio manager at Dynamic Asset Consulting, a provider of managed discretionary accounts, principally for financial planners. While most big investors abandoned…
Evolution Media, a part of the OneVue investor services group, has won a Gold Stevie Award at the International Business Awards for its ‘Secrets of the Money Masters’ educational series of television programs. The Stevies, which have been going for 17 years, take place around the world to recognise excellence in business and communications across…
Notwithstanding the political and superannuation industry talk of an infrastructure-led economic recovery in Australia, and elsewhere, the listed infrastructure sector has been looking decidedly unloved of late. And much of the sector’s underperformance against the broader market this year has not been justified in terms of company earnings. Guiseppe Corona, the London-based head of global…
by Greg Bright Jeff Bresnahan and Jason Clarke, the two founders of SuperRatings in 2002, have sold their combined stake of 37 per cent in the holding company Lonsec Holdings, of which Bresnahan is still chairman and Clarke still a director. Bresnahan, who holds the largest individual stake in the group, plans to semi-retire. Clarke…
It’s not only big super funds, such as Australian Super, which have taken a stick to Rio Tinto over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, forcing the departure of the chief executive, head of iron ore and head of corporate affairs. ESG-orientated fund managers have also been…
Stonehorn Partners, a Hong Kong-based Asian equity specialist, is looking to expand its reach in Australia and New Zealand through the appointment of an Australian-based distribution manager after a successful first year of operation in which the firm raised about A$300 million and beat all its performance benchmarks by a wide margin. Jonathan Goll, an…
Credit managers have come into their own since the global financial crisis. First it was the search for yield as interest rates headed towards zero around the world. Now it is more about diversification, protection – particularly against another correction in equity markets – and opportunities to produce alpha. One prominent credit manager based in…
