News

(Pictured: Rob Holroyd) Rob Holroyd, a prominent hedge fund manager who launched his commodities strategies business in Australia in the late 1990s, has died suddenly after returning home to New Zealand for Christmas from his recent base in Zug, Switzerland. His firm, Commodity Strategies AG, was one of the casualties of the van Eyk Blueprint blow-up….

(Pictured: Gordon Orr) Investors struggling to come to grips with their exposure to China – whether to double up or down after the recent sharemarket jump – will find the decision even more difficult next year. McKinsey & Co’s veteran China watcher, Gordon Orr, presents his predictions. Orr, a director of McKinsey’s Shanghai office, says in…

(Pictured: Gordon Hagart) Lobbying by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors has helped a big improvement across a range of ESG issues in corporate Australia as the organisation’s influence has grown with international expansion. NZ Super has become ACSI’s fifth international member. The ACSI annual report, published last week, says that the percentage of female directors…

PIMCO has added its considerable weight to the funds manager consensus view of a positive outlook for international growth next year – if not in Australia. Even the 40 per cent drop in oil prices contains more good news than bad. The latest PIMCO “Cyclical Forum” report, published last week, says that the drop in…

(Pictured: Wai Kwong Seck) State Street’s Asia Pacific head of global services and global markets, Wai Kwong Seck, has been promoted to its group management committee in a series of promotions including that of a new group chief operating officer. The Boston-based bank and fund manager announced last week that Mike Rogers has become president and…

(Pictured: David Chin) by Andrew Polley* Chinese capital for property development is being driven offshore, to the rest of Asia and Australia, because of declining returns and a continued trend to invest internationally, a conference for ‘Australia-China Property Developers and Investors’ was told last week. But David Chin, of consulting and research firm Basis Point, which…

The Centre for International Finance and Regulation is to fund individual research based on any of the 44 proposals presented last week in the final report of the Financial System Inquiry. The organisation has called for applications by February 13 – ahead of the March deadline for industry responses to the inquiry. CIFR said academics from…

by Steve Engdahl* Asset managers have tackled pricing issues for years. But what they haven’t faced – until now – is a minefield of thinly-traded markets and unprecedented regulatory scrutiny. While the subject of pricing isn’t new, it has never been more explosive – and the old way of running processes is being put to…

Macquarie Bank, AMP Capital and Colonial First State have the most potential to benefit from China granting Australia’s first RQFII quota last month, following the deal between the ASX and Bank of China which will allow RMB-denominated investments. China funds management industry researcher Z-Ben Advisors has analysed the new landscape. In a report to clients…

(Pictured: Steve Tucker) When Steve Tucker ran MLC he fought the good fight for transparency on fees and fee-for-service advice, with a certain amount of success. Now, with the launch today of the new dealer group of which he is chair, Koda Capital, he gets to oversee a firm which is able to adhere to…

(Pictured: David Murray) comment by Greg Bright There were few, if any, surprises in the report of the Financial System Inquiry. Increased capital requirements for banks, a tad more regulation, some new regulatory bodies to oversee it, slightly sharper oversight and transparency in the planning world, a return to stricter gearing rules for super funds and…

(Pictured: Dragana Timotijevic) Select Investment Partners, which recently became a subsidiary of OneVue, has recruited experienced investment consultant Dragana Timotijevic as head of research. Timotijevic, who has for the past two years been doing contract work at the Australian Catholics super fund in Sydney and van Eyk Research, was previously a principal and global head of…