News

Institutional investors expect to allocate more to their various alternatives strategies in the next 12 months, on average, in every asset class except hedge funds, according to latest survey by the global alternatives research firm Prequin. But most have lowered their sights on expected returns. Infrastructure will get the biggest increase, with 43 per cent…

Heitman, the global real estate investment management firm, has taken on its first Australian client commitment to its US real estate debt business, which is one of the fastest growing set of strategies for the firm. There are several reasons for the popularity, according to David Maki. Maki, a senior managing director in private real…

National Asset Servicing (NAS) has appointed Jonathan Green, the former general manager for investment implementation and operations at TCorp, to the role of head of account management within the sales and relationship team. Green was also a member of the TCorp executive committee and investment committee and has more than 30 years’ experience in financial…

State Street Global Services has concentrated its regional product group in Singapore, making two Sydney positions redundant, including that of long-time senior executive, and a managing director, Paul Toepfer. Toepfer is a former COO at State Street who has been with the firm for about 15 years. Most recently he headed up the product group…

Funds SA, the $32 billion South Australian Government fund manager which handles several super funds, is going to tender for its securities servicing contract, currently held by JP Morgan. The fiduciary manager has appointed Mercer Sentinel to advise on the review and assist in the tender process. Mercer held a briefing in Sydney last week…

In co-operation with a Swedish endowment fund, DWS (formerly Deutsche Asset Management) explored a strategy which became a fund available to others in November 2015. The DWS Real Assets Income Strategy, the manager discovered, also fit the requirements of a range of investors in the current climate. According to Matthias Meyer, the head of investment…

by David Chaplin The NZ$40 billion-odd NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) has confirmed it will replace the CIO role formally left vacant this June as incumbent, Matt Whineray, ascended to the top job at the organisation. In a job ad listed last week, the NZS says the CIO role is a “high profile leadership position” with…

by Alex Wise* Decision making by Australian trustees and fiduciaries has been called into question during the recent hearings at the Royal Commission into banking and super. Effective due diligence underpins informed decision making when appointing external fund managers, argues Castle Hall. In today’s world of ever-widening duties on those charged with investment decisions, the…

Vanguard has rolled out a suite of environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds first offered in NZ to the Australian market. Last week Vanguard launched the ‘Ethically Conscious’ range of global share and bond funds in both unlisted and ETF formats in Australia. The passive fund giant, which manages more than US$5 trillion worldwide, released…

Super funds are participating in the global share market rally, with big gains from US and European markets providing a promising start to the 2018-19 financial year, according to the latest numbers from SuperRatings. The median balanced option grew at an estimated 1.1 per cent in July, while the median growth option delivered 1.3 per…

The nascent world of impact investing, whereby funds management enjoins with philanthropy and governments in specific projects and/or strategies, is about to get much more professional. A new academic study shows what needs to be done to give the recent growth trend a kick along. Michael van Niekerk, the author of “Scaling Impact Investment and…

The private debt market is taking off as an asset class for big internationally orientated pension funds. According to bfinance, the global mandate search specialist and advisor, more than 40 private debt searches have been undertaken in the past two years, two of which were for Australian super funds. Niels Bodenheim, a London-based senior director…