Funds Management

While some say Aoris is an “early Magellan”, chief investment officer Stephen Arnold has no intention of going down the same path that other Australian fund managers have taken. The problem that lies at the heart of active funds management is well-understood: very few will ever outperform the market over a long timeframe. It’s a…

The green boom has seen rife speculation on so-called sustainable companies without so much as a dollar to their name. Firetrail’s new global equities operation wants to find the ones with a few warts on them instead. “It’s all about finding tomorrow’s leaders,” says Justin Gray, one of three portfolio manager for Firetrail’s new S3…

Chalk one up for the old guys: a new study has found that, where funds management is concerned, age is correlated with both performance and persistence. “The most consistent result from our estimates of the cross-sectional relationship between manager characteristics and manager skill… are that accumulated wisdom, however this is proxied, has a positive relationship…

After a hellish close to 2021 that saw the departure of one of Magellan’s largest institutional clients, the pressure will be on for Hamish Douglass to do what he says he won’t: prioritise the short-term. The closing months of 2021 were likely the harshest of Hamish Douglass’s public career. Criticisms of Magellan’s underperformance since the…

Big and traditional managers are encroaching further on the space of alternative managers, gauging by winners and finalists at the sector’s annual awards on Friday night. The Australian Alternative Investment Awards, held in conjunction with the Hedge Funds Rock charity night at the Sydney Hilton, December 10, represented a welcome live, and lively, event for…

In a positive sign for diversified global managers, the dual-listed Ninety One has reported a turnaround in fund flows and a big increase in profits following strong returns in the past six months. The company said in London last week (November 16) that net inflows of £3.9 billion sterling (A$7.2 billion), taking total assets under…

Big Australian investors have never been very fond of taking geographical bets in their portfolios. Just ask a marketing person about selling Asia ex-Japan, for instance; even in the ‘Asian Century’. There are good reasons for why they shouldn’t, the main one being that geographies limit an investor’s universe. A good investment is a good…

While factor investing has been taken up globally, it’s seen slower pickup in the highly concentrated Australian equity market. That’s starting to change. The success of traditional active management is mostly due to its exposure to the most common factors: value, momentum, quality, and low volatility. But while factor-based investing has become globally ubiquitous, challenges…

A profound shift in the investment environment demands a revolution – not an evolution – in thinking, according to Ruffer. It might be the only way to defy gravity. The analogy that Ruffer uses for investor behaviour over the last 40 years is that of crabs. The humble crustaceans evolved to fill their niche from…

IOOF has become the first external client for a new strategy from Nassau Private Credit, a US-based specialist global credit manager, with a US$50 million investment. The strategy invests in collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) focusing on ‘control equity’, mezzanine and debt tranches of third-party managed instruments. Nassau Private Credit has been represented in Australia by…

There’s perhaps only one thing more satisfying for the business people who run big funds management firms than organic growth, and that’s to reward the trust of long-term clients. Around the 10th anniversary of the Martin Currie Global Emerging Markets team, three of the crucial players behind the success of the strategy have reflected on…

Perpetual Asset Management Australia won three categories in last Friday’s annual Zenith Partners awards, including the top ‘Fund Manager of the Year’. In the other major categories, Fidante Partners picked up the ‘Distributor of the Year’ and Eiger Capital the ‘Rising Star’ award. ClearBridge Investments effectively received two awards, that for ‘Infrastructure’, while the firm’s…