Caroline Goodman Institutional Protection Services (IPS), an international shareholder class actions specialist, has expanded its reach in the region with the appointment of an Australian representative and the completion of its first roadshow. Caroline Goodman, London-based IPS founder and managing director, spent last week in Sydney and Melbourne speaking to super funds and fund manager…
Ken Kencel Lending to medium-to-large corporates has taken on a different hue in recent years. Pension funds, generally through their fund managers, are now the most important group of lenders ahead of the major banks, especially in the US. The restructuring of GE Capital and its parent in April this year confirmed the permanence of…
Michael Hunstad With the help of a cute new name – ‘smart beta’ – engineering portfolios to systematically invest according to various factors has captured the attention of investors, both large and small, in the past few years. Now, that attention is getting seriously analytical, according to one of the big providers in the field,…
John Donovan The Myer family office is to seed an Australian-domiciled fund to be managed by the Ranger Capital Group in the US – the Ranger Global Income and Growth Fund – which has been introduced to the market by distributor AFM Investment Partners. John Donovan, a principal of AFM, said the Ranger strategy had…
Peter Brook Pillar Administration has selected Financial Synergy to consolidate its nine platforms into one by March next year when the $60 billion First State Super is scheduled to migrate to the new system. Financial Synergy’s Acurity, which was already one of the Pillar platforms, will eventual be administering about 4 million accounts when the…
Kerry Series Eight Investment Partners (8IP) has doubled the size of its Australian small-cap funds with the confirmation last week of a $55 million mandate from Colonial First State – the firm’s first institutional investor. 8IP was established in 2009 by Kerry Series, a co-founder of Perennial Investment Partners and former head of Asia Pacific…
Ron Bird The annual Paul Woolley Centre conference, organised by University of Technology Sydney, this year includes a four-person debate on the resilience or otherwise of the financial system post-GFC and the vulnerability of financial institutions. The conference program was announced last week (download PDF). The London School of Economics-based Paul Woolley Centre funds research…
Nick Dobson AMP Capital NZ executive Nick Dobson has resigned after about 17 years with the business. Grant Hassell, recently appointed AMP Capital NZ managing director, said Dobson’s imminent departure had been well signalled. “Nick has been in charge of AMP’s alternative assets – including private equity – which we’ve been selling down since the…
Paul Khoury Fund managers are facing the most challenging environment for many years with both uncertain markets and uncertain client demands. Still, most are optimistic, according to the annual fund managers survey by State Street, to be published this week. The survey revealed four key ‘value drivers’ for managers. The trend to inhouse management by…
Chris Donohoe The Future Generation Global Investment Company, Geoff Wilson’s latest listed investment vehicle which has a strong philanthropic bent and attracted enormous industry interest, last week tied up a major institutional investor. The fund’s offer closes this Friday (August 28) – download prospectus here. The Australian arm of insurance giant QBE has invested $30…
