News

The Government’s ‘Retirement Income Covenant’ is off to a shaky start following initial reactions to its position paper. There is a complete absence of detail for super funds to ponder. While welcoming the Government’s move on the subject and the aim for resulting legislation to be non-prescriptive in nature, three influential and apolitical organisations have…

BlackRock, the biggest investment house in the known universe, now holds sway over about a quarter of the NZ retail fund market after cementing a deal with ASB last week to oversee some $20 billion. The ASB move to outsource most investment decisions to BlackRock coincides with the transition of an estimated $10 billion of…

After a soft streak in a chaotic 2020, the IPO market is expected to take off with a “strong pipeline” of new floats coming through 2021, according to HLB Mann Judd. The Australian IPO market is gaining pace after a sluggish period that saw a scant $132 million raised in the first half of 2020,…

Exogenous factors, such as wars, can and do impact markets but rarely do we get to see a medical crisis play out quite like this. It is science versus the unknown. At a briefing featuring three of its managers last week (July 21), distributor and multi-affiliate manager GSFM provided a snapshot of how the managers…

Third-party distributor 3PD has partnered with an Indian equities manager, ValueQuest Capital, for the institutional and wholesale markets in Australia and New Zealand. ValueQuest, a boutique with a seven-year track record for its offshore strategy, known as ‘ValueQuest India Moat Fund’, was formed in early in 2013. Sanjay Bakshi, and Paresh Thakker are the founders,…

Last week was a big one for the chief executives of AustralianSuper and Cbus. Their funds announced record-setting returns for the financial year and the next day they both took another hammering from a Commonwealth parliamentary committee. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, chaired by Tim Wilson, a Liberal MP, is often enlivened…

The Police Superannuation Scheme in NZ will tweak its asset allocation model and launch a new high-growth option after some outsourced soul-searching. The exercise is a case study in matching member expectations. In its latest newsletter, the almost NZ$2.4 billion (A$2.2 billion) PSS says the changes follow the findings of an investment review and member…

Rob Brown has resigned his position as chief executive of the Australian Custodial Services Association to pursue business interests. He will continue until a suitable replacement is found. Brown has spent many years in asset servicing, starting with State Street in the mid-1990s – as well as running NAB-owned Ausmaq for six years until 2010,…

Paul Coenraads, the manager investment operations at Australian Catholic Superannuation and a former head of investments at Mine Super, retired last week (July 8) after nearly 40 years in the industry. Coenraads, who recently turned 60, said his retirement had long been planned. He and his wife bought a home at scenic Fingal Bay, north…

An independent review has called for a governance and investment upgrade at the NZ Government Superannuation Fund after finding the fund’s management and board had been at odds over recent performance. In its five-year statutory review, the Australian arm of global consultancy Willis Towers Watson (WTW) found the GSF, a NZ$4.2 billion (A$4.0 billion) fund…

Fund managers are increasingly speaking with one voice on issues around climate change, with at least 143 global firms so far joining the ‘Net Zero Asset Managers’ initiative. Several big ones signed up last week. The Australian signatory managers and international firms with strong Australian commitments are, by accident or design, implying increased pressure on…

Geoff Hodge, founder and chair of Milestone Group, one of the Australian fintech success stories of the past 20 years, is to finally cash out. BNY Mellon is to acquire the now-global business. The two companies announced the transaction last Friday (July 9 Australian time), saying that it would benefit the existing clients of both…