News

by David Chaplin* Blair Vernon, AMP NZ managing director, has a busy few months ahead of him. Vernon, along with Sydney-based AMP head of life, Megan Beer, has been charged with knocking the rag-tag NZ business – deemed as deadweight by the new, “leaner” Australian parent – into IPO-ready material some time next year… maybe….

Australians love their royals. Even the republicans amongst us are very happy to engage with royal tours. The growing anti-tobacco lobby managed to hop on the bandwagon, by accident, last Thursday morning to launch a new initiative in the important anti-tobacco movement. An Arabian princess presided over the proceedings. The breakfast, on October 18, included…

After 17 years at MSCI and having established the office in Australia, Michael Anderson has decided to take a long holiday and look for new opportunities. He finished up last Friday. When he started in 2001 in Australia MSCI was still owned by Morgan Stanley. It is now an S&P 50 stock with four product…

Emerging markets are not flavour of the month right now, due to several factors including the trade war between the US and several other countries, particularly China. The emerging markets also had a great run post the global financial crisis, serving as a buffer against weakness in developed country economies and markets. But in the…

With fixed income managers predicting for some years now that the party is all-but over as rates start to rise again, a plethora of new strategies has been launched looking to provide yield through taking more and different risks or abandoning a benchmark through absolute returns strategies or – increasingly popular – a combination of…

While some big funds are increasingly creating headlines through their exclusions of so-called ‘sin stocks’, such as tobacco or fossil-fuel producers, individual investors are demanding even more action, according to Stephane Andre, one of the principals of boutique equities manager Alphinity Investment Management. He says ethical and even impact investing vehicles are being increasingly sought….

Heitman, the US-based private real estate equity and debt investor, has recently financed the purchase of an office building in Brisbane’s up-and-coming Fortitude Valley. It is now in deep analysis over another property in a similar area. The big property-orientated manager likes Australia for several reasons. Australia stayed afloat during the global financial crisis, Mary…

Janus Henderson Investors took its merged team on the road for the first time last week with two of its most senior alternatives managers, David Elms and John Fujiwara meeting up in Australia. David Elms, the London-based head of diversified alternatives, and John Fujiwara, portfolio manager based at former Janus headquarters in Denver, said the…

Trust in the financial system at the advisor level had halved in the run-up to the Royal Commission, according to research by CoreData, but is starting to come back. Similarly, flows into industry funds, which had doubled, are moving back to longer-term averages. Speaking during the first session at last week’s Fund Summit in Sydney,…

Chi-X and Deutsche Bank are hopeful of having between 25-50 US stocks on their new TraCRs system for Australian investors within the next 12 months, following last week’s launch of five securities and immediate plans for a further five by the end of this month. TraCRs enable investors to buy the equivalent of a US…

by Greg Bright The Securities and Exchange Commission in the US is coming after a start-up Australian funds management firm, Goldsky Asset Management, for misleading representations to potential investors. The SEC law suit shines a light on the Gold Coast-based firm which had a glittering celebrity launch just last year. According to the SEC, Goldsky,…

Group life insurance for the vast majority of Australians is about to go through its biggest shake-up since the 1980s. Younger people are likely to be cut out of their coverage and older people are going to pay more. In theory, it seems like a decent plan, but not everyone is happy. As is often…