News

If ever there is an asset class that has come into its own in recent months, at least in theory, it’s emerging markets bonds. Emerging markets equities have suffered outflows, credit and other higher-alpha fixed income strategies are looking wobbly and yet investors of all shapes and sizes are looking to go defensive. What to…

TCorp, the big NSW Government-related fund, has rounded out its investment team with three new appointments including that of head of portfolio construction. Tanya Branwhite. Branwhite will be joining TCorp after about 25 years of investment management experience, most recently from the Future Fund, where she had the heady titles of ‘director of listed equities…

ASIC has acted against the Gold Coast-based hedge fund manager Goldsky Asset Management following a claim against the fund by the SEC in the US. ASIC had previously assisted the SEC with their enquiries. ASIC last week confirmed it had frozen Goldsky’s assets because the firm had no licence and operated an unregistered investment scheme….

by Greg Bright For the past few months, Martin Currie Investments, the big Edinburgh-based equities manager, has been revamping its flagship global equities strategy. The results were unveiled in a series of meetings in Australia last week. Plus, the firm has flagged the formation of a new long-term research institute. Willie Watt, the chief executive…

There are 27 open class actions in Australia at the moment, accounting for roughly 10 per cent of the market capitalisation of the ASX 200. Australia has become the second-most important market for investor class cations in the world. Investors need to take note. Whether or not it is an emerging asset class, there is…

RBC Investor & Treasury Services has unveiled a revamped ‘strategic intent’ which upgrades Australia to one of its three core markets, outside of Canada, to become a leader in its field. Backed by a massive new technology roll-out, RBC has gone to a new level in asset servicing. In Australia last week, coinciding with the…

Frontier Advisors has extended its strategy of recruiting analysts and consultants from diverse finance-related backgrounds, with the appointment of Philip Naylor, who has had a career encompassing the RBA, in Sydney and New York, Macquarie Bank, the World Bank and the Northern Territory Government. Naylor joined Frontier this month as a senior consultant in the…

Catholic Super, the big Melbourne-based multi-employer fund, has re-signed with its securities servicing partner, NAB Asset Servicing (NAS), for the next three years. According to Lachlan Allardice, NAB’s head of account management for asset servicing, the Melbourne Catholics, as the fund tends to be known, has a strong growth agenda requiring additional services. He said…

by Bruce Boundy* The keynote speakers at this year’s Morningstar ‘Individual Investor Conference’ believe that the halcyon days of the post-GFC global stock market boom are coming to an end. The first session of the well-attended conference was moderated by Emma Wall, senior international ‘editor’ at Morningstar, and was entitled “Global Investing in Turbulent Geo-Political…

Calvert Research and Management, the US-based ESG specialist, has expanded its team of analysts and has plans for more hires. The Eaton Vance-affiliate manager is also looking to provide more direct service to Australian and New Zealand funds. Washington-based Calvert last month announced the recruitment of four analysts – Daniel Dorman, Hellen Mbugua, John Patrick Miller…

Emerging markets managers have had a rough trot in the past year or so, but the asset class is very different to what it used to be. For instance, a likely recovery in Brazil may well prove that emerging markets have not entered “contagion” territory. And they may never again. According to Sean Taylor, a…

An underweight position in equities combined with a large holding in defunct NZX-listed insurer CBL saw the $40 billion Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) miss its after-costs benchmark for only the second time in more than quarter of a century. “However, we underperformed our benchmarks by 0.1 per cent if adjustments are made for investment costs…