News

Raewyn Williams New Parametric research shows a marked difference in return enhancements when comparing super funds using a specialist implementation manager versus a backoffice custodial solution to manage the tax impact of investing. “More funds are turning to questions of ‘how,’ and ‘who’ can help them to fulfil their legal obligation to focus on after-tax returns,”…

Geoff Wilson With the kick-start of a lazy $3 million from Geoff Wilson’s family foundation, the Future Generations Global listed investment company, which debuted on the ASX last Thursday, attracted a glittering array of celebrity investors. It also attracted some mental health and other charities as shareholders. The LIC sponsored by Geoff Wilson’s Wilson Asset…

Johan Carlberg AMP Capital has given a big leg-up to the Australian equities boutique Alphinity Investment Management through its Specialist Australian Share Fund’s $650 million domestic shares allocation. It has redeemed the mandate with its own fundamental long/short fund, following some staff moves, to fund the Alphinity mandate. The AMP Capital Multi-Asset Group, which manages money across…

Amanda Gillespie and Vanessa Stoykov  Several media companies have flirted with trying to use their audience reach to enter funds management. David Koch blew about $30 million in a failed attempt in the dotcom boom and Fairfax bought an online managed funds distribution business only to sell it back to its founder some years later….

Graham Ansell ANZ Wealth has looked in-house to fill two new fixed interest roles created as its Auckland-based team assumes broader responsibility for the bank’s Australasian investments. ANZ has shifted its entire Australasian fixed income unit to Auckland under a revamp of its approach to managing trans-Tasman assets. According to an ANZ spokesperson, the new…

John Bennett National Australia Bank is conducting its biennial foreign exchange survey of big super funds and other asset owners with a view to publishing the results in November. The bank, which offers passive hedging strategies for clients, couldn’t have picked a better time. According to John Bennett, NAB’s general manager, Global FI Sales and…

Philippe Jordan Capital Fund Management (CFM) is to launch a diversified alternative beta fund in Australia – the latest liquid alternatives product to hit the market – capitalising on increasing demand for a plethora of smart beta strategies. The Paris-based manager is highly quantitative, boasting a mix of physicists and mathematicians alongside traders at all…

Michael Hanson-Lawson  It’s not just in the general media but also in the investment world: Russia gets a lot of bad press. And, of late, the press couldn’t get much worse. Sanctions are biting the economy and the rouble has plummeted. Meanwhile, Vladamir Putin remains steadfast in his aggressive stance to his neighbours and the…

Mike Rierson Big data may change the way some managers invest. A lot has already been said about the predictive power of data analysis on stock prices – things such as chatter on social media. BlackRock has now applied its “data science” research to fixed income portfolios. BlackRock recently published a research note on the…

Matt Brown  NAB Asset Servicing has been retained by two big super fund clients after reviews of their custody arrangements. NAB has re-won both the $5 billion Maritime Super and the $8 billion MTAA Super in recent weeks. The latest custody reviews come off the back of a frenetic period for custodians which has seen…

Ross Bowden The bringing together under the one roof of Superpartners’ scaled financial advice business and the AAS-owned Money Solutions means that big, mostly not-for-profit, super funds will deliver more than 35,000 individual pieces of advice to members this year, rising to more than 50,000 a year in the medium term. More advice will be…

Daniel Sheard  The hit taken by share markets over the past three weeks following the Chinese market meltdown has underscored the enduring importance of a significant chunk of fixed interest in any portfolio. But, if interest rates are likely to head north again soon, what sort of fixed interest investments are best? The answer, for…