News

Ron Bird The annual Paul Woolley Centre conference, organised by University of Technology Sydney, this year includes a four-person debate on the resilience or otherwise of the financial system post-GFC and the vulnerability of financial institutions. The conference program was announced last week (download PDF). The London School of Economics-based Paul Woolley Centre funds research…

Nick Dobson AMP Capital NZ executive Nick Dobson has resigned after about 17 years with the business. Grant Hassell, recently appointed AMP Capital NZ managing director, said Dobson’s imminent departure had been well signalled. “Nick has been in charge of AMP’s alternative assets – including private equity – which we’ve been selling down since the…

Paul Khoury Fund managers are facing the most challenging environment for many years with both uncertain markets and uncertain client demands. Still, most are optimistic, according to the annual fund managers survey by State Street, to be published this week. The survey revealed four key ‘value drivers’ for managers. The trend to inhouse management by…

Chris Donohoe The Future Generation Global Investment Company, Geoff Wilson’s latest listed investment vehicle which has a strong philanthropic bent and attracted enormous industry interest, last week tied up a major institutional investor. The fund’s offer closes this Friday (August 28) – download prospectus here. The Australian arm of insurance giant QBE has invested $30…

Connie Mckeage China Asset Management Company, mainland China’s largest, as well as state-controlled, fund manager, has selected Australia’s OneVue to provide RE and unit registry services for its Hong Kong-based international arm. The deal represents a big leap forward for both parties. Beijing-based China AMC, through its Hong Kong subsidiary, and Azure Funds Management –…

Michael Gordon  Michael Gordon, the group executive for Perpetual Investments, announced his retirement last week. It’s not the first time he has done so, but this time he means it. Gordon is one of Australia’s most successful investment management leaders, having had chief executive or head investment roles in Sydney, Hong Kong and London over…

Andrew Barnes Andrew Barnes, the New Zealand funds management entrepreneur and former chairman of Australasian Wealth Investments (AWI), last week hired a chief executive for his privately held trust company Complectus, prompting speculation of more corporate action in both Australia and New Zealand. But he told Investment News NZ that listing was still off the…

Byram Johnston Mainstream BPO is looking to raise a relatively modest $10 million through an IPO involving the sale of up to 30 per cent of the company’s shares. The market capitalisation of what is arguably Australia’s largest third-party administrator for fund managers is expected to start at between $30-35 million. The IPO, first flagged…

Michele Mazzoleni Research Affiliates, the California-based smart-beta manager, has produced an interesting paper questioning several key assumptions about the relationship between the US dollar and the economic and market performance of emerging markets. Is the stronger greenback really bad news? The paper says there are three ‘myths’ which investors often believe are true: >  Higher US…

Margo Lydon The big group insurers to industry and other not-for-profit super funds have recommitted to the SuperFriend mental health initiative, cementing the organisation’s work with employers on employee mental health issues. SuperFriend is also about to announce a new framework to improve and standardise the assessment of psychological claims. The insurers estimate that mental…

David Bell, Craig Stanford, Mark Levinson and Travis Schoenleber by Greg Bright Liquid alternatives and highly liquid retail hedge funds, alternative beta, new benchmarks, performance comparisons, education and, inevitably, fee structures featured in a recent hedge fund roundtable. Participants were David Bell, the CIO of mine wealth + wellbeing (formerly AusCoal), consultants Craig Stanford of Ibbotson and…

Lars Jaeger Lars Jaeger, a scientist who made his name in the investment world developing alternative beta strategies, has a big new mission. He is helping the global asset manager GAM, of which he is head of quantitative research in the Alternative Investment Solutions team, to build a platform of alternative risk premia as an industry standard. Jaeger, visiting Australia…