News

A punishing, indiscriminate sell-off has left opportunities lying on the floor. After a 13-year “anti-value phase”, the style is coming back into style. It seems that value is back – not just in a sputtering short-term rally that will soon be dispatched by rejuvenated growth stocks, but in a new cycle that US-based Pzena Investment…

As the money-fueled tech bubble pops, value investing is clawing its way back to the top. But investors shouldn’t write off growth just yet, even if it’s not “coming back in a hurry.” The last few months in markets have been characterized by wild volatility as inflation and interest rates creep higher, with investors uncertain…

A new report from CEM Benchmarking shows that the Your Future Your Super (YFYS) performance test lifts system-wide outcomes. But size of fund is no silver bullet. While questions have been raised about the ability of the YFYS performance test to accurately identify poor-performing funds, an analysis of historical global pension fund data by CEM…

Northern Trust has joined other global custodians in creating a dedicated division for servicing digital assets. Northern Trust’s Digital Assets and Financial Markets group will be led by Justin Chapman, the current global head of Market Advocacy and Research. The new group will combine the teams responsible for supporting digital asset markets with those “dedicated…

Year-to-date, fixed income markets are about as bad as equities. But Michael Leithead, fixed income and senior portfolio manager at EFG Asset Management (EFGAM), is more positive than he’s been “in a long time.” “We’re at a point now where the market has priced in quite a lot of global policy tightening, and that restores…

New York-based Kudu Investment Management has returned to Australia in hopes of pulling off a repeat of its 2020 deal with Channel Capital. “The asset management business is an absolutely beautiful business, to the mind of anybody involved in it. It’s rock solid; it has high margins; and the people are interesting,” says Charlie Ruffel,…

The wave of consolidation racing through the superannuation industry is now raising eyebrows at the prudential regulator. With the massive amounts of FUM being devoured, some funds are suffering indigestion. “This may manifest at the industry level at the point of transfer in a SFT, for example where an administrator has a backlog of transfers…

While most super funds will deliver their members a negative return this year amidst an indiscriminate selloff, they remain well ahead of their long-term objectives. Up until the end of May, returns for the financial year to date “were pretty flat”. But by close-of-business Friday (June 17) a median growth fund would have returned negative…

Market conditions have shifted dramatically in recent months. But while growth strategies have suffered significant pain, value investors are finally proving their bona fides. While total returns for value investing have been reasonable – annualizing 12 per cent over the decade to 31 May – value investors have still struggled to match the stratospheric returns…

While the best financial interests’ duty (BFID) has seen some super funds think twice about ESG,reconciling ESG and responsible investment with best financial interests’ duty isn’t the hurdle some think. One of the more obtuse changes under Your Future Your Super (YFYS) was the insertion of the word “financial” into “best (financial) interests’ duty”. While…

Specialist UK-based impact investment firm, WHEB, has upped its fund turnover amid recent market volatility, according to associate portfolio manager, Victoria MacLean. On a whistle-stop tour of Australasia last week, MacLean said the WHEB fund saw a higher level of buys and sells than normal as the manager repositioned the strategy during the first quarter…

While institutions are yet to make the jump into cryptocurrencies, State Street’s move to launch its first new division in 40 years shows that a whole new universe of assets is here to stay. “It’s very hard to find somebody that’s neutral about cryptocurrencies,” Nadine Chakar, global head of State Street Digital, told ASI on…