News

A new review will address some of the unintended consequences of Your Future Your Super. But while super funds are no doubt holding out for a hero, there’s probably no perfect performance test.

As a world of woe continues to roil markets, Australia’s top alternative investment managers gathered to celebrate their gains and raise money for a good cause.

The level of alpha that hedge funds generated in the age of quantitative easing was “lackluster”, but rising market volatility now offer “a richer opportunity set for skilled managers.”

With rising rates expected to enhance yield in an asset class characterized by floating rate loans, international private markets manager Northleaf will launch a new open-ended private credit fund Down Under.

As rates rise and the money fuelled tech bubble pops, private companies – and their investors – are buckling down. The hard question, for which there is no good answer, is about what happens next.

A host of things investors have benefitted from in recent decades are likely to turn on a multi-year view. Even the much vaunted alternatives will find it harder to generate alpha.

Portfolios built along factor lines may be better-placed to withstand the grinding effects of high inflation, a recent study probing almost 150 years of market returns has found.

The smart money in the alternatives space is likely to flow into CTAs, or trend-following hedge funds, and global macro strategies, according to an annual survey by capital introduction specialists Agecroft Partners LLC.

It’s big super’s “once in a lifetime opportunity” to build the future. But as funds look to invest in nation-building in Australia and the Pacific, they’ll want the government to share some of the risk.

BNP Paribas Securities Services has gone with local knowledge and experience for the new head of its Australia and New Zealand business, appointing a 24-year State Street veteran to the role.

The prudential regulator’s superannuation czar says it has no view on whether smaller funds can survive – but that funds must continue to innovate to avoid becoming “footnotes in financial history”.

As homegrown competition intensifies and offshore players eye Australia’s retirement savings, the industry funds are now “frenemies”. Reinvigorating the collaborative model will be the key to their survival.