News

(Pictured: Carl Tannenbaum) Carl Tannenbaum, senior economist and vice president at Northern Trust, seems to think Australians are a pessimistic bunch. “For a country that hasn’t had a recession in 22 years which, relative to a lot of other developed countries, is really doing quite well, [with a] strong banking system, a pretty well balanced economic…

(Pictured: Steve Howell) HCAP Asset Management is opening its next, and fifth, single asset trust, called the South Brisbane Single Asset Trust, to investors on Wednesday for an offer close data of 11 June 2014. The trust offers exposure to a residential development project and targets a substantial return of 25 per cent over 18 months,…

(Pictured: Elmer Funke Kupper) by Greg Bright An hour or so after mFund was launched, with some fanfare, at the ASX last Thursday (May 8), Tyndall Asset Management completed its annual advisor roadshow. At both events, in Sydney, the continuing SMSF phenomenon got an airing. While just a small part of its presentation, Tyndall demonstrated how…

(Pictured: Ian Martin) State Street has restructured its senior management in three of its four divisions across the region, with Sydney-based Ian Martin, who ran global markets and securities services in Australia and southern Asia, being promoted to a new role in Hong Kong. He is being replaced by Chris Taylor, who is moving from Hong…

(Pictured: Sonja Lee) Sonja Lee, Towers Watson’s marketing director in Australia, is to join the consulting firm’s prestigious ‘Thinking Ahead Group’ (TAG2.0), based in the UK, from early July. In her new role, Lee will also be revisiting the skills she needed in her previous occupation in management consulting. She has been at Towers Watson for…

(Pictured: Suzanne Holden) Suzanne Holden, chief operating officer of the Link Group, didn’t mince her words at last Friday’s (May 9) AIST superannuation administration symposium. She said up-front costs associated with SuperStream have blown out and estimates of longer-term savings of $1 billion a year were “fanciful”. She was speaking on a panel session with the…

(Pictured: Philip Metcalf) Socius Technologies, a UK-based investment technology start-up, which has opened a regional office in Hong Kong, has developed a form of protected pensions service for super funds which uses portfolio insurance strategies. It appears to be a more palatable alternative for members who have so far been reluctant to give up most or…

(Pictured: Robert Caporale) Milestone Group is expanding its North American presence and has hired an experienced securities services executive, Robert Caporale, from JP Morgan to head up the operation, based in Boston. Caporale has spent the past 12 years at JP Morgan in strategy business and sales roles, most recently as head of sales for the…

(Pictured: Kenneth McAtamney) Kenneth McAtamney thinks that recent trends in investing appear to be veering away from old-fashioned fundamental beliefs and something important is being lost in the process. “What if we just invest in great companies?” he asks. McAtamney, a partner in and portfolio manager for global manager William Blair & Co, says “better” companies…

(Pictured: Peter Tierney) After the global financial crisis the G20 finance heads decided on three things: to have more over-the-counter (OTC) trading in electronic and lit markets; to have third-party clearing for settlements; and compulsory OTC daily reporting. The last one, at least, is being phased in now. DTCC, the industry-owned global infrastructure provider for securities…

(Pictured: Steve Hall) Comment by Greg Bright Every super fund CEO I’ve ever met, which is most of them, has said to me that he or she runs the fund as a business. As I get older and grumpier (my friend Jack Gray says it’s OK to be that way and he’s a lot smarter than…

(Pictured: Nial Gooding) Boutique Asian equities and Australian small-cap manager Eight Investment Partners (8IP) has closed its Hong Kong office. Nial Gooding, the experienced investment manager there, is now looking to form his own boutique. Gooding said last week that, after 20 years in Hong Kong, he would remain there and look to build a new…