News

Even before last week’s political strife in the UK over Brexit, big global investors were concerned about the growing systemic risks, according to the latest international risk survey by DTCC, the post-trade infrastructure provider. The slower-than-expected negotiating progress between the UK and European Union and the ongoing uncertainty of the outcome has positioned Brexit as…

by Jonathan Shaw* Building informed member engagement is more crucial than ever if funds want to retain and attract members. Engagement is a balancing act. Just enough and super fund members make better retirement decisions. Too much and they can easily derail their retirement plans. Walking this line is no easy path according to the…

It’s difficult to imagine Garry Weaven in retirement. Even though he is in his late 60s, one suspects it will be a very active retirement. Last week he announced he was going to hand over the chairman role at IFM Investors to another former ACTU heavyweight, Greg Combet. IFM Investors is Weaven’s last remaining major…

The world of so-called ‘secondary’ funds, which provide liquidity for investors in generally illiquid assets, such as private equity, is getting a lot more sophisticated with the entry of US-based Melting Point Solutions to the Australian market. Melting Point, a small specialist broker which started in San Francisco in 2014, and now also has an…

Global demographic trends are leading to a whole new world of property investment, which Heitman, a global specialist property-backed manager, calls the “living sector”. Tony Smedley, the firm’s European head of private equity for Europe, visited Australia late last month to talk about the trends. Heitman has long invested in what the Americans call multi-family…

GQG Partners, the US-based global equities boutique backed by Australian incubator Pacific Current Group, is setting up its own office in Australia, following the recruitment of Laird Abernethy as managing director for Australia and New Zealand. GQG has been a run-away success for funds flow, both in the US and Australia, since its establishment by…

Northern Trust has lifted the pace with new technology for its asset servicing clients with the purchase last week of another FX specialist company. But, Penelope Biggs says there is more to the future than just having good technology. Culture is probably the most important thing. London-based Biggs, Northern’s chief strategy officer for corporate and…

In the property sector, the introduction of ESG principles has, to date, largely been confined to the design and redevelopment of ‘green buildings’. But a handful of fund managers has sought to integrate ESG in all aspects of their work. Property, more than most asset classes, is all about the long term, which is about…

James Swanson, the chief investment strategist at MFS Institutional Advisors, who has been with the firm for 33 years, is, like all of us of a certain age, contemplating retirement. His reflections on the world of investments show how, as the saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same. In his…

The sixth annual survey by the global multi-affiliate manager Legg Mason paints an interesting new picture of the way individual investors – both advised and unadvised – are approaching their investment portfolios. There appear to be big changes on the way. The results of the global survey of 16,810 investors across 17 countries, including Australia,…

When Calastone flicks the switch on its swish new blockchain fund transaction system next May clients would reap “numerous and immediate” benefits, according to acting head of the Australasian arm of the business, Ross Fox. Fox said Calastone’s well-signalled move to a “permissioned” blockchain managed fund transaction service would deliver both efficiencies and open up…

by Greg Bright* RBC Investor & Treasury Services posed an interesting question to fund managers last week: “Is data creepy or cool?” The answer, probably, is: “both”. An eclectic group of fund managers gathered in Sydney and had their say on data, its collection and its management. And, an interesting further question is: ‘who owns…