News

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…

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….