News

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…

Andrew Roberts, the billionaire former major shareholder in the Multiplex property group, appears to be retiring parts of his interest in funds management. RF Capital has shuttered its hedge fund strategy, known as the Empirica business, resulting in a dozen positions being made redundant.. RF Capital, the Roberts family funds management firm, had been on…

Mine Super, the $11 billion coal industry fund formerly known as AusCoal, announced late last Friday the resignation of David Bell, the fund’s CIO. It came as a shock. He is remaining at the fund, though, until a replacement is found. The statement from Mine Super, at 4.45pm last Friday, said: “David has been employed…

Parametric, the specialist implementation manager, has been awarded a $200 million global equities mandate by a big super fund. The bespoke mandate, which is worthy of a case study, addresses certain risk factors and concerns about unintended biases in factor-based portfolios. Unfortunately, the fund’s executives have requested anonymity. It is the manager’s first factor mandate…

Manager search specialist bfinance has ticked over 70 searches for pension fund clients in the Asia Pacific region, 30 of which were in Australia, where it set up office in 2016. The trend with those mandates is instructive – funds are going defensive and alternative. According to Pal Sarai, a London-based managing director and head…

Rather scarily, Chris Mittleman, the managing partner and CIO of US-based global equities shop Mittleman Investment Management, which has beaten its benchmark by a wide margin since the firm’s inception, says the opportunity set for his value style reminds him of 1999. “We are at zero cash now in our fund. Our average has been…

With the ubiquity of MySuper default options, many funds have attempted to provide a more tailored retirement solution to members through the adoption of so-called ‘lifecycle’ strategies. But, a new paper by Frontier Advisors, warns that members may retire with less as a result. The paper, co-authored by David Carruthers, a principal consultant and head…