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This is our last investment outlook report focusing on 2015 – we promise. It’s from Morningstar, which should be – at least in theory – dispassionate about its views. In a nutshell: Australian shares present a challenge for investors next year. Morningstar’s annual outlook for the Australian share market says that the decline in prices…

(Pictured: Rob Holroyd) Rob Holroyd, a prominent hedge fund manager who launched his commodities strategies business in Australia in the late 1990s, has died suddenly after returning home to New Zealand for Christmas from his recent base in Zug, Switzerland. His firm, Commodity Strategies AG, was one of the casualties of the van Eyk Blueprint blow-up….

(Pictured: Gordon Orr) Investors struggling to come to grips with their exposure to China – whether to double up or down after the recent sharemarket jump – will find the decision even more difficult next year. McKinsey & Co’s veteran China watcher, Gordon Orr, presents his predictions. Orr, a director of McKinsey’s Shanghai office, says in…

(Pictured: Gordon Hagart) Lobbying by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors has helped a big improvement across a range of ESG issues in corporate Australia as the organisation’s influence has grown with international expansion. NZ Super has become ACSI’s fifth international member. The ACSI annual report, published last week, says that the percentage of female directors…

PIMCO has added its considerable weight to the funds manager consensus view of a positive outlook for international growth next year – if not in Australia. Even the 40 per cent drop in oil prices contains more good news than bad. The latest PIMCO “Cyclical Forum” report, published last week, says that the drop in…

(Pictured: Wai Kwong Seck) State Street’s Asia Pacific head of global services and global markets, Wai Kwong Seck, has been promoted to its group management committee in a series of promotions including that of a new group chief operating officer. The Boston-based bank and fund manager announced last week that Mike Rogers has become president and…

(Pictured: Cliff Asness) Ten years ago Affiliated Managers Group, now the world’s largest multi-affiliate manager, entered the hedge fund industry through the purchase of a minority interest in AQR Capital Management and put that firm’s star managers on a 10-year employment contract. Last week AMG bought some more of AQR and re-signed its stars. Befitting the…

(Pictured: David Sokulsky) For much of this year UBS Wealth Management has been advising Australian clients – accounting for more than $20 billion with the firm – to reduce their Australian equities exposures and shift money into the US market. UBS is continuing to do so following its outlook for next year. David Sokulsky, the CIO…

(Pictured: Robyn Petrou) by Patrick Liddy Sun Tzu, made famous by his book ‘The Art of War’, was asked by the King of Wu to perform an experiment on the movement of troops. Specifically, the question was:  ‘Can you conduct this test using women?’ Sun Tzu said, ‘yes.’ The King sent from the palace 180 beautiful…

(Pictured: David Chin) by Andrew Polley* Chinese capital for property development is being driven offshore, to the rest of Asia and Australia, because of declining returns and a continued trend to invest internationally, a conference for ‘Australia-China Property Developers and Investors’ was told last week. But David Chin, of consulting and research firm Basis Point, which…