According to Paul Krugman, the markets, especially the US market, are telling us that the gap between productivity and wages is widening. This means profits are rising but not being invested because demand is so weak. The rise to record levels by the Dow Jones Industrial Average index last week, and other markets which are…
Australia’s Future Fund has decided to instruct its managers to exclude tobacco stocks from its portfolio following a review by the board’s governance committee, which was established in May last year. While the fund says the decision was its own, it follows pressure from several politicians, especially the Greens senator Richard Di Natale, to do…
Big pension funds often rail about the governance of the companies they invest in. But what about their own? Benjie Fraser, a governance expert, focuses on Asia Pacific funds compared with European ones at the IO&C Conference in Shanghai, April 29-30. Fraser, a managing director of JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services, Europe, says: “The Global…
China has extended its pilot securities lending program, for short sellers and other managers, which was launched last August. A group of 11 brokerages will be able to borrow shares in a pre-qualified pool of 90 listed “blue-chip” companies, the China Securities Journal said last week, citing information received from the state-owned China Securities Finance…
The Hong Kong-based alternative investment publishers IAIR announced their annual award winners last week, with La Trobe Financial*, UBS Global Asset Management and Winton Capital each picking up two of the 14 awards for asset managers. La Trobe was awarded for “excellence in mortgage fund management, independent, Australia” and “excellence and innovation in fund management,…
Historically, institutional investors don’t invest in gold. That is for individuals and, even then, professional advisors will often question the wisdom. But every now and again gold goes for a run in price and people have another look at their strategy. With the increasing popularity of ETFs, even among pension funds, access to the market…
When the then Frank Russell Co opened its first Asia Pacific office in the mid 1980s the big fund managers of the day had a right to be nervous. On the back of its one Australian client at the time, MLC, Russell launched what became a tidal wave of specialist investment mandates which led to…
Mercer is negotiating to install a member-directed platform for its Australian trusts, which account for the largest single group of its multi-manager funds under management globally, and is understood to have decided a shortlist of two providers. The move follows the high-profile trend by big super funds such as AustralianSuper to introduce an SMSF-type structure…
Fund managers have had a tough time for the last five years, observes Joe Antonellis, and it’s not going to get better anytime soon. What they need to do is adapt. And asset servicing companies will have to do the same. Antonellis, vice chairman of State Street, in Boston, and leader of the firm’s European…
If you think that Asia de-coupled from the west a few years ago, think again. If you think that Asian intra-regional trade is important enough to overcome slack western demand, think again. And if you think that spoons are better than chop sticks … well, you get the picture. Simon Ogus, founder and CEO of…
