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(pictured: Doug Hodge) By Greg Bright PIMCO, the world’s largest bond manager, announced last week that it would retrench about 3 per cent of its staff globally. Australia has already felt the decision. PIMCO said last Thursday (AEST) that it had made 68 positions redundant and was proposing to lose a total of about 3 per…

(pictured: Graeme Mather) It’s looking a bit like a structural problem for the institutional funds management industry. Graeme Mather is leaving Mercer, it was revealed last week. He is the third head of investment consulting of Australia’s major firms to depart in recent months. Mather, who oversaw about 160 people at Mercer as head of investment…

(pictured: Paul Chadwick) AIMA Australia, the Alternative Investment Management Association, celebrates its 15th anniversary this week. A lot has changed since the Australian chapter was born in the ashes of tech wreck. For one thing, the term ‘hedge fund’ is no longer a pejorative. Paul Chadwick, the current AIMA Australia chair – only the organisation’s third…

(pictured: Paul Moghtader) By Greg Bright In the evolution of funds management, coupled with the evolution of big super funds, quantitative investing has had its own twists and turns. Post-GFC, quants are enjoying a resurgence. They are blending investment styles to achieve an outcome. Paul Moghtader , Boston-based portfolio manager and head of a nine-person quant…

(pictured: Julian Beaumont) In times of uncertainty, such as now, ‘quality’ stocks tend to do well. But everything is cyclical and what is going well at the moment is not necessarily going to go well in the future. Julian Beaumont, investment director of Bennelong Australian Equity Partners (BAEP), says that there is a long list of…

(pictured: Tristan Baldwin) Liquidnet, the institutional trading network, has launched a new suite of liquidity-seeking APAC equities algorithms (algos) designed to improve the trading performance for Australian institutional investors. Liquidnet’s “Next Gen Algos” leverage the company’s pool of institutional liquidity spanning five continents and13 billion shares per day. The suite also offers enhanced control for buy-side…

(pictured: Doug Cameron) Regulation has emerged as the number one obsession for the NZ investment industry in a new report released this week. The inaugural BNP Paribas NZ ‘Investments & Operations Outlook’ survey, produced in association with Investment News NZ, found regulatory worries outweighed more traditional business issues. According to the survey of more than 90…

(pictured: Garry Weaven) Garry Weaven, chair of IFM Investors and founder of several service companies owned by industry funds, has said there are some big challenges facing funds. And member administration, once the “poor cousin” of super, is now in the front line. Speaking via a webinar organised by investment analyst and meetings organiser Stewart Oldfield…

(pictured: Cassandra Hardman)  It is finally starting to dawn on investors what the low-to-no interest environment means: low returns stretching out, probably, for some years. So what do you do? Cassandra Hardman, one of the pioneers of concentrated portfolios in international equities, has some advice. In the beta cycles in markets which, at the extremes,…

(pictured: Darrell Ludowyke) For super funds, the term ‘big data’ has generally been regarded as something its IT people and service providers, such as custodians, needed to be aware of. Not any more. Big data has come of age as something all CEOs and marketing people should be addressing. While the use of the term is…