Funds Management

The Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) test is here to stay – but CIOs are still adapting to the idiosyncrasies of their new benchmarks. “The performance test gives you an additional target,” Anna Shelley, CIO of AMP, told the ASFA Conference on Wednesday (27 April). “And you can be the best archer in the world,…

Investors and their fund managers have dumped Russian holdings in recent weeks amid worsening horror at the invasion of Ukraine. But active managers could lessen the blow for investors through new opportunities on the other side of a Russian trade. For Ninety One’s emerging markets team, Russia is an “ugly sideshow” to the main investment…

Massive dispersion still remains in the aftermath of a relatively minor correction, and now is the time to scrutinise consensus expectations for some market darlings. “If you ask 100 engineers how much steel and concrete are required to build a bridge, and 99 engineers say x amount of steel and y amount of concrete, and…

Markets are poised for more damage after a remarkable bull run, and Orbis Australia believes now is the time when contrarianism will prove its worth. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” writes Charles Dickens in “A Tale…

Venture capital and private equity have produced the most popular source of new IPOs in recent years, but public market investors are rejecting the valuations they’ve set. Venture capital has been one of the most popular and profitable sectors in which to operate and invest in the last few years. Traditionally the domain of the…

Investment strategies yoked to indices face the most risk as the 30-year global economic détente unravels, according to UK-based economist, Andrew Hunt. Hunt told a Nikko Asset Management webinar audience last week that index investors benefited over the previous three decades from “chasing liquidity” and themes predicated on growing economic collaboration across the world. But…

Perennial’s new private growth fund is swinging for the institutional market as more and more companies steer clear of public markets amidst conditions. “The number of companies looking to stay private for longer has exploded,” says Ryan Sohn,portfolio manager for Perennial’s new Private Growth Ventures fund. “There’s a need for patient, private capital, and that’s…

According to Pzena Investment Management, the value cycle is now truly under way – and shows no signs of slowing.   New York-based Pzena Investment Management began to track the value rotation in late 2020, with its analysis research showing that deep value stocks have outperformed by around 37.4 per cent since. But the question…

Active managers are more sensitive than ever to valuation risk. But in recent times it’s been a case of “go big or go home.” In recent years, Frontier has noted a narrowing in the breadth of US equity market return drivers, and short-term extremes of the same, with just a handful of tech mega-cap stocks…

Magellan has gone to its investors with a profit beat, a potential share buyback, and a promise that it will no longer be distracted by dalliances outside its core funds management business. Magellan came out swinging at its first results briefing since the surprise departure of Hamish Douglass, announcing an increased dividend, a potential share…

The woes never seem to end in emerging markets, but their proponents see the current upheaval as a chance to take advantage of dirt-cheap valuations. China’s regulatory crackdown still has investors running scared, but Joseph Lai, chief investment officer of Ox Capital, says he and his team are like “kids in a candy shop”. Lai…

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…