News

After 14 years at the helm, having established and led the firm’s growth in Australia and New Zealand for all that time, Murray Brewer has told colleagues and his bosses in Baltimore, USA, that he will retire from T. Rowe Price at the end of this year. Commenting on his decision, disclosed just before Christmas,…

Aviva Investors, the big global manager, is advising investors to get back into the water. It is preferring to go overweight global equities due to the recently improved growth outlook. It is, however, “broadly neutral” towards fixed income strategies. Aviva, which manages about A$1.1 trillion across a range of strategies, expects global growth to pick…

We’re all inundated with fund managers’ macro views at the best of times. And the start of the calendar year is not a best of time – we are currently being swamped. It’s difficult to find a manager’s view which does not merely match the consensus. Nevertheless, here’s a summary of the outlook courtesy of…

Matthew Goldsack, head of investment solutions for the Westpac-owned BT Funds NZ, will take up a role at Trust Management later this month. Goldsack resigned from the NZ$10 billion (A$ 9.5 billion) business in December after an eight-year career with the Westpac subsidiary. It is understood he will replace long-time Trust Management head of investment,…

The size of the total super pie should hit $10.2 trillion within 20 years – by 2038 – compared with $2.7 trillion as at June 2018, according to modelling by consulting and actuarial firm Deloitte. In its annual review of the state of the super industry, Deloitte says that the rapid growth should continue despite…

Ahead of its launch of a proposed ‘Long-Term Investment Institute’, Martin Currie, the Edinburgh-based international equities house, has produced an interesting paper describing the strong link between long-termism and sustainability. There are differences in the two concepts, too. The paper,  ‘How Asset Owners Can Drive Sustainability’, written by David Sheasby, Martin Currie’s head of stewardship…

If you are an alternatives fund manager, forget the old world of America and Europe. The growth is in the new world of Asia and other developing markets. A new study by Preqin, the global investments research house, spells out the future for alternatives managers and their investors. The study says the alternatives sector will…

Smaller companies have disappointed since the global financial crisis, but they have still, slightly, outperformed large companies, at least in Australia. The disappointment comes from what is expected of smaller companies in rising markets. A research note published last week by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), poses the question: “The underperformance of the smaller companies…

So much for the Chinese taking over Australian businesses. A special report from Link Group subsidiary Orient Capital says that investments from Chinese sovereign wealth funds and other institutions in ASX 200 companies has halved in the past five years. The latest report, ‘Ownership Trends in Australia’, is an update on a more fulsome version…

The NZ government could force the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), New Zealand’s largest institutional investor, to sell down about NZ$1 billion of fossil fuel-related investments, a parliamentary committee concluded last week. In a thinly veiled threat, the ‘Education and Workforce Committee‘ review of the ACC ethical investment policies says the NZ$45 billion (A$42 billion) fund…

by Greg Bright In an important and timely report published last week, Adviser Ratings, a research and advice firm which studies both individual financial advisors and the overall retail advice sector, has confirmed massive changes ahead. The changes will affect the whole super industry. The report, ‘Adviser Musical Chairs Report’, says that total advisor numbers…

Value is poised for a major comeback that could “generate some of the best returns in a quarter century”, according to a recent research paper by US quantitative and multi-asset shop, QMA. The study, published last month, says value stocks have been heavily beaten down over the last 18 months despite underlying fundamentals that belie…