News

The surprise proposed merger between Towers Watson and Willis Group announced last week has pushed the consulting firm to the top of the betting to win the auction for Russell Investments, which is reputedly down to a short list of three: Towers Watson and two Chinese firms – financial services conglomerate Citic and the unlikely…

Janet Hayden by David Chaplin Aon Hewitt is understood to have sold its superannuation and KiwiSaver fund administration business to a new entrant in the New Zealand market. According to industry sources, Aon has been in discussions with the unidentified purchaser for the last nine months. The deal – that may also include the group’s…

comment by Greg Bright After first being proposed by former assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinas in 2012, when still in opposition, legislation was finally introduced into parliament last week to mandate that APRA-regulated super funds will be required to have at least one-third of their trustee boards as independents, as defined by APRA. The debate has…

Andrew Lill Michael Coop, longstanding senior consultant at Ibbotson Associates and its predecessor Intech, who was most recently head of multi-asset strategies, has returned to the UK to take up a job with an insurance company. Kevin Wan Lum, who was head of Australian equities, has also left to go to Vic Super. But five…

Grant Forster Despite a multi-year bull run and sky-high valuations, equities will become the go-to asset class for most investors over the next few years, according to a study by UK-based researcher Create in association with Principal Global Investors (PGI). The study, published last week, found that more than 70 per cent of the 705…

Gavin Walker It is their long-term horizons rather than portfolio size that give sovereign wealth funds a significant edge over other investors in performance, according to a research note by JP Morgan Asset Management. The discipline they show in sticking to longer horizons mean they have increasingly taken advantage of liquidity premia from alternatives. Looking…

Matt Davison In an interesting deviation from conventional thinking, there appear to be more fintech start-ups targeting incumbent financial institutions as buyers of their inventions than there are those who want to become genuine disruptors in the marketplace, according to a senior research analyst with Martin Currie Australia. Matt Davison, the financial analyst at Martin…

Chris Drew Chris Drew left Sunsuper last Friday, where he was an investment manager, to complete the new investment team at the Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund, where he becomes the head of public markets. He joins the other recent recruit, John Phokos, who joined from Workcover NSW earlier this month. Phokos is the…

by Paul Crean* Ongoing weakness in the global economy, falling commodity prices and the likelihood of the US Federal Reserve raising rates and pushing the US dollar higher this year means emerging market economies look set to struggle across the board. So, are there any attractive choices in the emerging market universe? The ability to…

Zane Bernstein GMO, the big global quant-orientated value manager, has parted company with three of its most senior executives in the Asia Pacific region, including the chief executive and head of business in Australia and the chief operating officer, both of whom were based in Sydney. Another senior person based in Singapore has suddenly left…

Philip King by Greg Bright The fortunes of multi-award-winning hedge fund managers Andrew and Philip King seem to be going from bad to worse following their former board colleagues’ revelations of a query by ASIC over trading in a resources stock in 2013. Are they being punished for being clever? Andrew, the chief executive, and…

Paul McNamara Australian investors are in a better position than most to incorporate emerging market debt within their portfolios because they can take advantage of the close correlation between emerging market currencies and the Aussie dollar. A new research note shows how this works. According to global manager GAM, when Australian investors leave unhedged their…