Funds Management

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…

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…