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(pictured: David Braga) The $8 billion boutique equities manager Northcape Capital has switched securities servicing partners from RBC Capital to BNP Paribas as the manager looks to expand globally. The new arrangement includes middle-office services. Northcape, which was established in 2005 and which ventured into emerging market equities in 2008, specialises in concentrated portfolios for institutional…

(pictured: Wyatt Roy) by Trevor Dixon* Tech start-ups may have the capacity to create solutions but in many cases lack the distribution and reach to identify the problems crying out for those solutions, according to Wyatt Roy, the Federal Government’s assistant minister for innovation. Roy spoke at the second ‘TechTank’ roundtable organised by law firm MinterEllison…

(pictured: Tim Ridley) Cbus has introduced an options program through QIC with the dual goal of managing risk better and providing a new capability to develop member retirement products. Such programs are likely to become increasingly popular. Frontier Advisors has been publicly recommending such a program for the past couple of years, usually preferring to use…

(pictured: Barry McInerney) BMO Global Asset Management has published its annual five-year outlook for markets, including an analysis of three key “actionable” investment scenarios. The most likely tips a broadening of economic growth from the US to Europe and Japan. BMO GAM has placed a 60 per cent chance on the benign view which envisages…

Henderson Global Investors has gone live with Milestone Group’s ‘pControl Fund Oversight’ system across its range of mutual funds and investment trusts. The installation has also allowed a consolidation of admin services by the big manager. According to Milestone, the solution has enabled Henderson to automate the collection of fund valuation data and the subsequent…

(pictured: Mellody Hobson, photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Pirelli) Not too many fund managers have graced the pages of a Pirelli Calendar, not even the thinking-man’s edition shot by Annie Leibovitz last year. But Mellody Hobson is no ordinary fund manager. And she is speaking this week at the CMSF conference for all to hear. Greg…

(pictured: Kristi Mitchem)  On the day before International Women’s Day, last week, State Street Global Advisors announced the launch of its latest exchange traded fund: the SHE. Perhaps gender diversity may become the newest smart-beta factor for quantitative investing. When fund managers think they can make money out of a trend you know one thing:…

(pictured: Steven Hall)  In its second annual think tank involving family offices, high net worth investors and their specialist advisors, Brookvine dissected the value of diversification. The differences between these investors and big super funds are fascinating. The super funds are not always right. Steven Hall, managing director of Brookvine, a fund manager and distribution…

(pictured: Richard Murphy and John McNiven)  With the increasing popularity of bank hybrid securities, especially for yield-hungry retirees and SMSF investors, comes increasing concern that not everyone understands the products compared with other fixed income options. The results of a survey undertaken by the Australian Corporate Bond Company at last month’s SMSF Association conference in…

(pictured: Raewyn Williams) New research by Parametric Australia has quantified real and potential drag on the performance of big super funds through the Australian and international equity trading activities of their managers. Costs can blow out to as much as 119bps for an Aussie equities portfolio. According to Raewyn Williams, head of research of the Australian…