News

(Pictured: James Gruber) Insiders are bailing out of Hong Kong property, retail and financial services and the likely buyers of various big assets on the block are “dumb institutions”, analyst James Gruber says in his latest note to clients over the weekend. Gruber’s newsletter, ‘Asia Confidential’ says it is no surprise that the smart money is…

(Pictured: Robert Gottliebsen) BRW is/was more than a magazine. It changed the way big business interacted with the media and, consequently, the wider world of investors and consumers. Its last print edition will appear on November 28. Buy a copy and keep it. Fairfax launched Business Review Weekly in 1981, during the Fraser Government period,…

A research paper from the trading efficiency research firm Inalytics has added some weight to the growing evidence quantifying the value of good governance at listed companies. At least the ‘G’ in ESG makes money. The Inalytics research report published last week, ‘Does It Pay to Own Companies That do the Right Thing?’, finds that…

(Pictured: Peter Dorrian) The ‘great rotation’ may not be happening as predicted, but there is no doubt investors are deciding not to rollover their term deposits in the current environment and are moving into higher-yield-paying securities. Equity Trustees and its fund manager partner, PIMCO, are looking to capitalize on the trend. Equity Trustee last week…

Deloitte has produced a paper which tries to analyze the future of the super industry. There are lots of assumptions, some of them questionable, but it is a worthy exercise and well worth reading. Click here for the full report. The 30-page report says that industry funds will continue to grow over the next 20…

(Pictured: Jason Clarke) It looks like, according to SuperRatings data, that when the final 2013 numbers are in, this year will be the first ever that there is negative growth in the memberships of Australia’s large super funds. If funds don’t do something about their membership leakage they will inevitably go into a slow decline…

(Pictured: Troy Rieck) Troy Rieck, the former head of “capital markets” at QIC, has left the firm after 13 years. The role, which covered development of strategies for big-picture risks, such as currency, will be assumed by Michael McNee. The capital markets team, which was set up just prior to the start of the global…

(Pictured: Denis Carroll) CheckRisk, the UK-based risk consultancy, has launched a new service for institutional investors, including Australian super funds, which aims to simplify the complexity of investment risk. Called the ‘total risk monitoring system’ (TRMS), the service consists of four modules developed with the assistance of academic research at the UK universities of Bristol…

(Pictured: Tom Hancock) Tom Hancock, who thinks of himself as the financial services industry’s first “career recruiter” has shut down his business, Thomas Hancock & Associates, and embarked on a new career in real estate. Hancock has sold his smart office space in Sydney’s Macquarie Street and informed clients he was getting out of the…

(Pictured: David Goldbloom) Australia’s group insurers paid out at least $260 million in death and total and permanent disability claims due to psychological problems last year, according to SuperFriend, and the total financial loss from mental illness was at least 1.5 per cent of GDP, according to the National Mental Health Commission. These figures and…

(Pictured: Tim Poole) AustralianSuper has been reducing its exposure to government bonds, in favour of corporate loans and shorter-term securities, and increasing its exposure to international listed equities, according to the fund’s annual report published last week. Following the trend started last year, Australia’s largest super fund has produced a detailed 64-page report, compared with…

China’s maturing QFII program for foreign investors to invest in the China A-shares market is set to cause significant upheaval for fund managers and pension funds, according to a special report from Z-Ben Advisors. The Shanghai-based funds management research firm says in the report, entitled “QFII: An Evolution and Revolution”, that this year will by…