APIR, the long-time provider of identifiers for managed funds, is enhancing its role as a utility in the funds management industry. It’s not an easy role to perform, but it’s an important one. And managed funds are not shrinking in number, as you’d otherwise suspect. According to Chris Donohoe, the chief executive at APIR, the…
“Value is a philosophy, not a factor,” according to Bill Lipsey, president and head of distribution for New York-based global equities manager Pzena Investment Management. He visited Australia last week for the launch of the firm’s new fund, the ‘Pzena Global Focused Value Fund’. “There are really only two ways to invest,” he says. “Value…
When it comes to valuation, how ethical or not a firm is matters, according to an academic study by Augustin Landier, Professor of Finance at HEC Paris Business School, and his associates. People are prepared to pay more for an “ethical” stock and want to pay less for an “unethical” one. A new study by…
The annual HLB Mann Judd analysis of the Australian initial public offerings shows that while the number of IPOs fell last year, those that made it to the market performed better. This tells us a bit about the current state of our sharemarket. According to Marcus Ohm, the Perth-based HLB Mann Judd partner who authored…
Kristen Kohere-Soutar has stepped up as Mercer NZ chair following the retirement of long-time incumbent, Ross Butler. Kohere-Soutar joined the Mercer board in 2017, simultaneously dropping her director spot on the NgÄi Tahu-run Whai Rawa Fund. Mercer runs both investment and, more recently, fund administration for the almost $100 million Whai Rawa. In a statement,…
By Greg Bright Recent work by Boston-based communications agency CL-Media Relations LLC has raised some interesting questions over correlations between asset managers’ funds under management and their market cap. It’s not about the total of FUM, it’s more about how it was derived. The communications firm, co-founded by partner Rich Chimberg, has presented clients and…
For years, the industry waited for the pace of growth of the SMSF sector, in both assets and number of trustees, to slow and then move into reverse. That time is upon us. But, according to John Maroney at least, the consolidation, cements the sector’s importance. SMSFs will likely settle into a position representing about…
*By John O’Brien Warren Buffett came to my wife in a dream and told her to put all her retirement savings in Berkshire Hathaway stock. So, she did. Not to be outdone, I lay in bed waiting for inspiration. The only person I could come up with was Michael A.J. Farrell, who invented the mortgage REIT….
A memorial service will be held for Andrew Dawson today (January 28) following his recent passing. A well-known and colourful figure in the institutional funds space since the early 1990s, he will be sorely missed. As he will be in the small community of Jamberoo, on the south coast of NSW, where he last resided…
The NSW Government’s TCorp, the $100 billion investment and financial management body, has recruited Diana Callebaut from Cbus as its head of real assets. She left Cbus only last Friday (January 24) and starts her new job next Monday (February 3). Not much gardening leave in that timeframe. Callebaut joined Cbus as head of infrastructure…
