US-based impact investor ’57 Stars’, which invests actively in Australia, has developed a thematic approach to its investment strategy. While it still grabs opportunities as they present themselves, the firm is not as opportunistic as you would describe most impact investors. The privately owned firm, formed in 2005 and managing just under US$4 billion (A$6.1…
For those of us who are always on a diet, fish are great. For those of us who are also concerned about preserving the world’s wildlife, farmed fish are even greater. Aquaculture has become one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, including in Australia and New Zealand. In a presentation to a group of investors in…
Orient Capital, a Link Group company focussing on information to institutional investors and to listed companies looking to better liaise with their members and shareholders, has produced a guide for clients and others: ‘Keeping Pace with ESG’. The guide is being released in both Australia and the UK today and will be available at https://orientcap.com/….
by David Chaplin Multi-management has come a long way since Russell Investments helped pioneer the concept decades ago but some things never change. Jon Eggins, an Australian Russell portfolio veteran now based in the group’s Seattle HQ, said that, even today, trainee analysts must still pore over the famous ‘Duncan’s Tome’ that lays out the…
by Greg Bright A new wave of investment vehicles is upon us, reflecting the final convergence of listed and unlisted funds. Once again, Magellan Financial Group and its long-time administrator, Mainstream Fund Services, appear to have stolen the march on the rest of the industry. The Airlie Australian Share Fund is about to transform itself…
Zenith Investment Partners will pay $12 million for the research and consultancy business, Chant West, which is owned by Chant West Holdings Ltd (CWL), an ASX-listed company. Warren Chant was the first person to phone David Wright, Zenith’s chief executive, to congratulate him on the purchase. News of the deal, orchestrated by Brendan Burwood, the…
Franklin Templeton, a traditional global fund manager based in the unlikely small city of San Mateo, California, has agreed to buy the multi-affiliate manager Legg Mason, based in an equally unlikely city of Baltimore. Multi-affiliate management, while popular with investors, is not easy. Franklin Templeton’s announcement last Tuesday, February 18, stressed that Legg Mason’s affiliates…
Comment by Greg Bright The Motor Trades Association of Australia super fund, representing, primarily, car dealers and their staff, and Tasplan, the Tasmanian public offer fund representing public servants and others, which are in the process of an unlikely merger into a $22 billion-plus fund, have advertised for a new CIO. Philip Brown, the current…
Adam Coughlan died suddenly, of a heart attack, on Sunday, February 16. He was a popular and well-known member of the wholesale/retail funds management community. He was just 48 years old and left behind wife Vicki and 14-year-old daughter Sophie. He will be missed, not only by them but also by the wider industry community….
The almost NZ$50 billion NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) has added three new external mandates and cut one long-time manager from its roster over the last eight months. According to information updated in the wake of last week’s annual results, the NZS recently dropped LSV Asset Management, from a NZ$460 million emerging markets equities mandate –…
