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(Pictured: Stephen O’Brien and Gabrielle Pool) The annual Oasis Africa fundraiser, which is supported by various financial services types, takes place at the Civic Hotel in Sydney’s CBD on May 1. One of the directors, Stephen O’Brien, is selling limited print photographs taken during a recent trip to Kenya while artist Gabrielle Pool (both pictured…

(Pictured: John Donovan) After the first-ever delegation to Australia by the Indonesian Pension Fund Association, the organizer of the trip, John Donovan, said he hoped some of the big Indonesian funds would become co-investors in the region alongside Australian funds. Donovan, the managing director of AFM Investment Partners, said last week: “The Indonesian delegation was interested…

(Pictured: Damien Frawley) In an intriguing deal, QIC has spun off its small-cap Australian equities team into the boutique incubator Channel Capital, which was itself spun-off by Solaris Investment Management, which is itself incubated by Pinnacle Investment Management. Confused? QIC, the big increasingly global manager owned by the Queensland Government, announced last week that the small-cap…

(Pictured: Bo Knudsen) As one of the world’s first global managers to offer a concentrated portfolio as its core flagship product, Carnegie Asset Management thinks a lot about portfolio construction. It has had to. The 24-year-old fund, which makes up 75 per cent of the manager’s assets, has always had a maximum of 30 stocks. Many…

(Pictured: Rob da Silva) The tone was a little downbeat at the annual van Eyk Research conference in Sydney last week, with key speakers focusing on the various risks facing the financial world. The conference is historically one of the major influencers of the mood of the retail advice industry. The major themes were similar to…

Investec Bank said Friday that property funds management would remain a core business unit for the group in Australia following the sale of its “professional finance” business to the Bank of Queensland. The professional finance business includes deposits asset finance and leasing. BoQ told the market it would pay $440 million in the deal. Apart…

(Pictured: Martin Harris) Martin Harris, a former senior funds management marketer in Australia, including at Colonial First State and what is now UBS Asset Management, has become global head of institutional business at Jupiter Investment Management in London. The position is a new role for the big UK firm, which has concentrated most of its efforts…

Risk management is deeply ingrained in David Iverson, head of asset allocation at the A$20 billion New Zealand Superannuation Fund. Writing a book about it, however, proved to be more of an act of faith. David Chaplin finds out why. In the beginning there was the statement of investment beliefs. Or there should have been, according…

(Pictured: Paddy Manning) by Greg Bright Australian Ethical Investment has bought the pioneering publication Ethical Investor and will continue its fortnightly newsletter, no doubt as a loss leader. The publication has always been a labour of love. But its story is also reflective of the history of ESG investing in Australia. Ethical Investor was the brainchild…

(Pictured: Martin Scott) A leading indicator of expected investment mandate activity – fund management sales recruitment – has picked up considerably. Here are several key hires to be announced in coming weeks, including the opening of a UK hedge fund firm’s office in Australia. >  Winton Capital, a UK-based hedge fund manager, which has been represented…