News

Philippe Jordan Capital Fund Management (CFM), the Paris-based global hedge fund manager, which has been attracting Australian institutional interest over the past seven years, will launch its first local retail offering this week, which blends six alternative beta strategies. The fund – the ‘CFM Institutional Systematic Diversified Trust’ – is being distributed by Winston Capital…

Craig Hurt  There is a bit of a backlash against indexing through the use of smart beta strategies by big super funds and ETFs by individual investors, as well there should be. However, before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, investors should consider improving on the latest batch of quant-driven semi-passive options. AXA…

John O’Connell by David Chaplin Macquarie Bank has lent its big brand to the robo-advice revolution. And, from all accounts, the Macquarie offering is not just a calculator which prompts investors into a range of ETFs. As difficult as it may seem to believe, this may be the real deal for independently minded investors. The…

The NAB biennial super fund foreign exchange survey is one of the industry’s more worthwhile studies. In the wake of the FX scandals overseas during 2012-2014, this year’s survey should have been particularly interesting. But super funds are not fazed by their FX positions and counterparty risks, the survey indicates. The survey results published last week…

by Greg Bright Neuberger Berman and JP Morgan Asset Management have cracked the ‘Texas model’, thanks to Sunsuper, in what are believed to be the first multi-asset mandates of their kind in Australia. But the $35 billion fund has also indexed a large chunk of its portfolio ahead of the arrival of its new CIO….

Scott Hartley The interconnectivity of the investment world was well displayed last week with three separate announcements – the new CEO of Qantas Super, the new CIO of Sunsuper and the new CEO of JANA. The link is Scott Hartley. Hartley, the CEO of Sunsuper, appointed Ian Patrick, the CEO of JANA, one of its…

Matt Brown Comment by Greg Bright To be honest, the NAB Asset Servicing/Citi deal probably means more to those organisations, at least in the short term, than it does to their customers. But longer term, there are a range of new possibilities. Matt Brown of NAS and Martin Carpenter of Citi spoke – just a…

Marion Leslie After 20 years in the data business, Marion Leslie of Thomson Reuters says that the big change in recent times is that costs associated with data collection and management are now being turned into an asset. Thank you ‘big data’. Leslie, the managing director of Thomson Reuters’ global pricing and reference services business,…

Connie Mckeage OneVue Holdings has announced that it is moving on the third part of the super industry in which it does not already have a foothold – industry funds – with its digital SMSF offering. Fundamental changes are happening faster than most of us think, according to Connie Mckeage. Mckeage, the chief executive of…

by Nicholas Way For the more-than 1,000 delegates to the 28th AVCJ Private Equity and Venture forum in Hong Kong, the fact that the benchmark Shanghai index closed last Thursday at a record 10-week high – up 20 per cent since its late August low – must have been seen as a vote of confidence…

Andrew Bloore Most of the disruption occurring in funds management has to do with the SMSF market. But this has a potentially massive knock-on impact for industry and retail super funds. Incumbent systems providers and administrators are not standing idly by. AMP has cemented its number one position as an administrator in the SMSF market…

Paul Gregory New Zealand Super Fund (NZS) head of portfolio intelligence, Paul Gregory, has resigned to take up the last remaining top executive spot at the recently-restructured financial regulator, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). After a six-year career at NZS, Gregory, a former journalist, will commence as director of external communications and investor resources for…