Debby Blakey, the chief executive of HESTA, has joined the board of the International Corporate Governance Network, the overarching global body representing asset owners for the advancement of good governance. The prestigious appointment follows her other industry directorships at FEAL, ACSI and ASI. Hers was one of three appointments at ICGN announced last week (August…
Mark Lazberger, a founding director of the CFA Society in Australia and a former board member of the global CFA Institute, has returned to the governing body as its chair. Lazberger, who retired from full-time funds management positions in 2018, previously held two of the most senior roles in the industry, as a country and…
In the past 10 months, since November last year, the investor’s decision on China has done a fully circle – from not whether to invest but how to invest, back to not how but whether. It was in November that the Chinese Government scuttled the US$37 billion IPO of Ant Group, the financial services affiliate…
With equities and bonds both fully priced, investors are increasingly looking at alternative strategies. A new one, although difficult to access, is ‘greenfields infrastructure’. According to David Neal, the chief executive of IFM Investors and a former CIO and chief executive of the Future Fund, the conundrum for investors was well expressed by Stein’s Law…
The merger between Media Super and Cbus has been delayed until the first half of next year due to several factors demonstrating the complexity of these transactions. In its first communication on the merger with its members since the December 2020 announcement, Media Super sent a note to them last week (September 1) advising them…
A new network of investment professionals has backed the ESG integration trend among both asset owners and fund managers with a report which draws on the views of leading investors including the Future Fund and NZ Super. Titled ‘Alpha with Impact’, the report was published last Friday (August 27) to coincide with the first member…
You can do a lot with a well-thought-out nudge, but you probably can’t solve either of the crises of the moment, covid-19 and climate change, according to Richard H. Thaler. The behavioural economist and Nobel Laureate addressed a predominantly Australian webinar audience last week (August 24), organised by the University of Sydney Business School, where…
Early reports by ASX-listed companies under the Commonwealth’s Modern Slavery Act are positive but many have not responded to requests for information and some high-profile companies are exposed to greater risks than others. According to a new study by Martin Currie Australia (MCA), which manages almost $10 billion in Australian equities, 18 per cent of…
The investment world has its fair share of clever spin doctors, such as the investment banks behind the ‘BRICs’ and ‘PIGS’ of years past. Some intriguing labels are now coming out of the budding impact investing sector. Mark Berryman, the managing director of impact and sustainable investing at US advisory firm Caprock Group, offered up…
Early stage investors are starting to broaden their appetite for carbon-reducing new technologies, looking for opportunities in nascent industries such as plant-based foods. According to the latest figures from Preqin, the global alternatives research house, the value of capital raisings in the niche segment of ‘alternative meat’ increased sixfold between 2019 and 2020 to US$206…
