News

Anthony Quirk New Zealand’s largest boutique fund manager, which has a successful Sydney office, has been fined a record NZ$1.5 million (about A$1.4 million) after settling a long-running regulatory investigation into market manipulation charges last week. Under an agreement with the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), the NZ$3 billion-plus Milford Asset Management will pay a fine…

Graham Harman Following its recent long-term investing report, in which it urged investors to better diversify their portfolios in current market conditions, Russell Investments has honed in on the four Australian banks and questioned whether they are “worth the risk”. A paper (view here), written by Graham Harman, senior investment strategist, says that many investors…

Stephen Knight NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp) last week completed the amalgamation of NSW’s funds management activities, it was announced by the NSW Treasurer, Gladys Berejiklian. The amalgamation makes TCorp a top-10 Australian investment manager, with more than $70 billion under management. The amalgamation involved over 12 months of project work between NSW Treasury, TCorp and…

Michael Gallagher Just as hedge fund managers decided on a theme for their annual AIMA Australia forum this year – ‘A Look Into the Future’ – came the passage last week of the legislation for the Investment Management Regime (IMR) reforms, which have been years in the making. Australian hedge funds and boutiques should be…

Andrew Ang  BlackRock has recruited an Australian-born finance professor at New York’s Columbia University, Andrew Ang, to head up a new global strategy group focused on smart beta strategies. Ang will oversee, initially, about US$125 billion in assets. The group will focus on systematic factor-based investing, most commonly referred to as smart beta, which is…

Lasse Heje Pedersen by Greg Bright I’ve always been fascinated by predominantly short-selling managers – those whose style have a dedicated short bias – of whom there are a sprinkling in the US but none in Australia. At least none who raise money from the public. They tend to underperform for long periods, often several…

Vanguard has gazumped MSCI and FTSE/Russell by moving to directly include China A shares in its emerging markets ETF products and strategies. The two index companies vacillated in their latest deliberations. The news from Vanguard, which is not known for aggressive marketing positions with new products or strategies, offers nimble investors a prime opportunity to…

Matthew Chan A study commissioned by DTCC (the industry-owned Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) has provided an interim report card on progress with the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect cross-border investment reform. It suggests there are still several hurdles to overcome. The study, by independent researcher Celent, says that while Stock Connect has paved way for…

Jerome Lander  Jerome Lander, the former CIO of NSW WorkCover and a former Russell Investments consultant, has been appointed to the investment committee of Dynamic Asset Consulting, a firm associated with financial planning group WLM Financial Services. Lander joins Lukasz de Pourbaix, general manager of Lonsec Investment Consulting, as another independent on the Dynamic Asset…

John Hamer John Hamer, an experienced marketer, has returned to the funds management industry after four years in financial services media. He has taken an institutional business development role at the established boutique manager Private Portfolio Managers (PPM). Hamer was most recently the head of business at Investor Strategy News (ISN) and prior to that…

Raewyn Williams Super funds need to review their priorities as the window for tax-free change and restructuring is coming to an end, writes Raewyn Williams, the director of research and after-tax solutions at Parametric Australia. The Australian superannuation pool has crossed $2 trillion in assets under management, making this sector a mega taxable investor base….

Philip Brittan by Patrick Liddy* Paul Julius Reuter founded the company that still bears his name in London in 1851 as a business transmitting stock market quotations and news. Reuter had set up his “Submarine Telegraph” office and negotiated a contract with the London Stock Exchange to provide stock prices from the continental exchanges in…