(pictured: David Chaplin) The KiwiSaver market has passed NZ$34 billion ($A32.3 billion) in total assets, making it the largest pool of retail money in New Zealand and representing more than half the country’s population as members. But the number of providers is shrinking. The annual study by Investment News NZ publisher David Chaplin shows, however,…
(pictured: Tristan Baldwin) by John Kavanagh* Block trades have a significant mitigating effect on stock price volatility in the minutes leading up to the execution of a large share transaction, according to new research. Block trade specialist Liquidnet analysed its trading activity during the first half of the year and found that stock price volatility…
(pictured:Â John Peterson) John Peterson, former fund manager and asset consultant, has presented a forceful case to the Productivity Commission inquiry into the efficiency of the superannuation system backing the argument that an extreme focus on costs is to the detriment of super fund members. MySuper comes in for a particular serve. The director of the…
NAB Asset Servicing’s 22-year reign as Australia’s largest custodian has come to an end, according to the official market share figures to be published by the Australian Custodial Services Association within the next day or two. The new top of the charts and, for a long time, the largest securities servicing firm in the superannuation…
(pictured:Â Martin Gilbert) by Greg Bright In these days of increasing variety in investment structures, from traditional LICs to listed investment trusts, to ETFs to SMAs and IMAs, to mFunds and, most recently, to exchange quoted managed funds, it’s the traditional – the LIC – which investors and managers alike still tend to favour. For some…
(pictured:Â Benjie Fraser) Asia is lifting its game with the adoption of ESG principles, according to JP Morgan Investor Services, as big pension funds and other institutions are starting to widen their brief to embrace a UK-style “stewardship code”. Benjie Fraser, UK-based global pensions executive for investor services at JP Morgan, and regular visitor to Australia…
There are lots of theories about the best way to manage money but one of the most enduring is to adopt long-term thematic bets resulting in idiosyncratic concentrated portfolios. Enter Guardian Capital to the Australian market. Guardian has become a client of third-party marketer Allen Partners and has committed to offering its style of investing,…
(pictured: Brian Singer)Â The big calls that asset allocators have to make – and for Australian investors that’s often about currency – ultimately come down to geopolitical analysis. And that is, believe it or not, all about ‘Game Theory’. According to Brian Singer, the head of dynamic asset allocation for Chicago-based global manager William Blair,…
Smart beta style exchange-traded products are gaining an increasing share of the global market, a new Morningstar report shows. Apparently, investors are turning away from traditional indices. The Morningstar study says smart beta – or ‘strategic beta’ in the research house’s preferred parlance – ETPs grew at a faster pace than products linked to more…
(pictured:Â Ed Sippel) Comment by Greg Bright TA Associates, a private equity manager with a penchant for funds management firms, has notched up about US$8 billion in the space following its purchase of the Australian-domiciled funds management business of Goldman Sachs. Why? Coincidentally, Goldmans Australia has about A$8 billion in FUM, over fixed income and Aussie…
