News

Chris Cuffe  When it all seemed to be getting bogged down in definitional discussions at the inaugural Impact Investing Summit – especially where super funds and other fiduciary investors were concerned – Chris Cuffe rode to the rescue. Cuffe, the chair of UniSuper, philanthropist and former driving force behind the creation of Colonial First State…

Mark Pearce  With interest rates likely to head north and stock markets near fair value or above, coupled with a global shortage of yield investments, what does an advisor tell clients? A group of Australian researchers recently discussed their asset allocation options. On the Rainmaker ‘Best of Breed’ tour to London last month, the big…

Alice Breheny by Alice Breheny* Perhaps the biggest problem for large funds investing in commercial real estate is finding the investments. Certainly that’s the case in Australia and, increasingly, there is only one option: go global. TH Real Estate tells how to go about it. Investors in search of attractive commercial real estate opportunities must…

Kerry Series  Small caps don’t need an extraneous boost to their attractiveness as an investment, according to Kerry Series. But he will happily take the recent extra interest from overseas investors under the new Significant Investor Visa arrangements. Here is the offer for his first LIC. The Government changed the rules, effective July 1, in…

Maddy Senior  In the evolution of securities servicing over the past 30-or-so years three things have proved constant: fees keep going down; services get more and more complex, as do the securities themselves; and, everything gets faster and more automated. In fact, according to Madeleine (Maddy) Senior, the new head of Australia and New Zealand…

Kim Catechis “Nobody likes their index but ours is getting less meaningful,” says Kim Catechis, the head of global emerging markets for Martin Currie Investment Management. The common indices are no longer “fit for purpose” and they are about to be swamped by the inclusion of China, no matter how gradual the process. Catechis and…

Paul Hatfield  The global hunt for yield is having some interesting knock-on effects in corporate debt issuance, especially internationally and especially in Europe. ‘CCC’-grade issuance is at record levels because ‘the companies have been able to get away with it’. Here’s the opportunity. Paul Hatfield, the chief investment officer at the specialist credit manager Alcentra…

Mark Clancy  Cyber attacks on businesses, particularly financial services businesses, are grabbing big headlines with increasing frequency. Are the threats really so ominous? Mark Clancy provided an objective, almost calming, perspective in Australia last week. Clancy, the chief executive of the industry-supported initiative Soltra, was in Australia last week to speak at the regular Omgeo…

Jeff Bresnahan by Jeff Bresnahan* At the annual SuperRatings Awards dinner in Sydney last week, the research firm’s founder outlined four major issues the industry should address: fee obsession, insurance ‘ambulance chasers’, over-regulation of governance and forced fund mergers. This is an edited version of his speech. This is a night to celebrate the industry’s…

David Saunders by Greg Bright We’ve heard a lot about the recent stellar rise in demand for the so-called ’40 Act’ liquid alternatives funds in the US. Well, here is how the trend is playing out in Australia. Surprisingly, big super funds are beneficiaries. According to David Saunders, the founder and managing director of K2…

Brian Langstraat With most big super funds having to write out cheques to the ATO for the financial year just ended, for the first time since the global financial crisis, the topic of after-tax investing – forever it seems on the backburner – is coming again to the fore. But for Parametric Portfolio Associates, the…

Michael Monaghan State Super Financial Services is spreading its wings. The NSW Government-affiliated 160-planner advisory group, which has $16 billion in its investment funds and the country’s fourth-largest allocated pension, is looking for new like-minded ‘partners’. It has also changed its name. Now called StatePlus, the business is owned by the $35 billion closed defined…