An Australian super fund has seeded a boutique emerging market debt (EMD) fund as instos look overseas for yield. But challenges for the asset class abound. As Argentina approached its presidential primaries in August 2019, the team at EMD boutique Finisterre grew wary. The primaries would take place during a low liquidity month; they were…
With the advent of Your Future Your Super (YFYS) Australia’s super funds are more closely examining their indexing options. The trick is ensuring member outcomes don’t suffer. Benchmark-relative risk is now top of mind for super funds, with specialist implementation manager Parametric seeing a substantial uptick in the number of funds taking an interest in…
The collapse of an investee company has seen IFM hauled before the standing committee on economics. The bigger issue is how a fund manager keeps commercial matters confidential in Parliament. The hot topic at Thursday’s (29 July) hearing of the standing committee on economics was Tandem, a workplace contractor and IFM investee that has now…
After a soft streak in a chaotic 2020, the IPO market is expected to take off with a “strong pipeline” of new floats coming through 2021, according to HLB Mann Judd. The Australian IPO market is gaining pace after a sluggish period that saw a scant $132 million raised in the first half of 2020,…
Failing to take advantage of the recovery trade looks bad. But with Alibaba, Magellan missed a risk you could see from space. Hamish Douglass, Magellan chairman and chief investment officer, has been much maligned in recent months for something that’s probably his fault but not actually his problem: missing the market rally in late 2020….
Trustees need to be wary of seeing everything through the lens of super, according to Chant West’s Ian Fryer. Engaging with controversial ideas around its uses can be a boon for member outcomes. As the big banks and their superannuation products copped a hiding in the Hayne royal commission , the rivers of gold correspondingly…
Trustees should consider “pre-mortem” stress tests and a whole of portfolio approach to the YFYS performance benchmarks to avoid underperformance, according to Willis Towers Watson (WTW). Jonathan Grigg, WTW director for investments, says avoiding test failure will be a high priority for funds, but not one that can override the obligation to act in members’…
There is a growing fear that the post-YFYS landscape will be dominated by a handful of megafunds, with competition – and differentiated member outcomes – disappearing. Super funds are about to experience a quick and bloody cull. With the first underperformance results expected on September 1, and letters to be sent out soon after advising…
Fresh from its sale of a 51 per cent stake in ETF provider BetaShares, Korean asset manager Mirae is preparing for an all-out assault on every segment of the Australian market. The analogy that Kristian Walesby, the new local chief executive of Korea-based Mirae Asset Global Investment, employs for its Australia expansion is that of…
The asset management colossus believes three key themes will shape a post-covid world of rising climate risk and extraordinary economic imbalances. Ben Powell, the chief investment strategist for Asia Pacific at BlackRock’s Investment Institute in Singapore, said: “To state the obvious, the last 18 months have been rather unusual. It hasn’t been a normal slowdown…
