Health and community services fund HESTA has backed the development of an innovative ‘village’ providing residential care for sufferers from dementia. HESTA invested $19 million to assist the construction and operation of the ‘Korongee Village’ in Hobart through its ‘Social Impact Investment Trust’. The fund hopes other large investors will be encouraged to invest in…
Frontier Advisors has analysed the performance of equities fund managers across the final quarter of the 2019-20 financial year. In a note released to its clients, Frontier reported that growth-focussed managers outstripped value managers by a considerable margin over the quarter, particularly across international markets where some very strong results were recorded. While the underperformance…
ARP Investments, a New York-based global quantitative manager, has entered the Australian market through a distribution partnership with a Sydney-based placement agent, Axius Partners. The staff-owned ARP is currently raising capital for its liquid alternative strategies, which have proved popular strategies in Australia in recent years. ARP, which was formed in 2013, manages about US$2…
The top 15 super funds all managed to eke out positive returns in the year to June, limping across the line after the most volatile period for markets since the global financial crisis. The top 10, eight of which were not-for-profit funds, ranged between 3.8 per cent and 0.8 per cent for the 12 months….
by David Chaplin BlackRock institutional investors piled out of index fixed income strategies during the June quarter in favour of an active approach to the asset class. According to the BlackRock June quarter results, institutional investors withdrew a net US$10.7 billion (A$15.3 billion) from index fixed income funds while adding almost US$5 billion (A$7.15 billion)…
David Bryant formally entered the Mercer stable last week as chief executive for Australia and Pacific zone leader in a move announced this March. He has a mandate to “advance the firm’s leadership position across Australia and New Zealand”, according to a Mercer release last week. He reports to David Anderson, Mercer international region president….
The human impact of isolation to protect oneself, one’s family, and the community against COVID-19 has prompted investors to pause and re-think their portfolios on several levels. Real estate exposure is a logical place to revisit as the pandemic has accelerated some trends and hastened others that were already underway. According to Heitman LLC, the…
Australia’s $20 billion green bonds market is coming of age, having spawned the first managed fund dedicated to the asset sub-class. Australian Unity launched an institutional-grade unlisted unit trust last month, managed by its in-house cash and fixed interest team Altius, with three cornerstone investors to give it a start-up funds under management figure of…
While China has been a standout country for the adoption of online consumer purchases for several years, the trend has accelerated during COVID-19 and other emerging markets, such as Brazil, have taken a “huge leap forward”, according to Martin Currie. Much of the new ground will remain after normalisation. In an online discussion between Kim…
Stephen Miller, investment strategist for multi-affiliate manager GSFM, has taken an interesting line in a note to clients on why the Reserve Bank of Australia should not, and probably won’t, follow some other countries into negative interest rate territory. The possibility of funds managers and other financial institutions “hoarding” physical cash is a potential unintended…
