News

While tactical asset allocation strategies have had a long history in Australia, their newish incarnation, as global macro funds, have tended to go in and out of fashion in step with market jitters. The current volatility is good news. Starting with separately managed accounts in 2017 and launching a fund in April 2019, boutique manager…

Mine Super has taken a big step towards commercialising its majority interest in Recreo Financial, the administration systems provider it partnered with in 2015. It has been a rocky road for many of the participants. Recreo is to merge with two complementary businesses acquired by Certane, a new market player that bought the remnants of…

The IFAA Group has seen almost immediate success with new business from several sources, notwithstanding its recent acquisition by Auckland-based administration and consulting firm MMC. Neil Harvey, IFAA Group’s managing director, said last week that recent wins for the group were the reappointment late last year as fund administrator for Gardior and a new appointment…

APRA’s proposed changes to the regulation known as SPS250 will mean all super funds will have to fundamentally challenge the nature of their existing insurance partnerships by widening the notions of priority and privilege. The changes will alter the competitive landscape. In 2020, APRA amended this core superannuation standards to address a recommendation from the…

Harvey Kalman, the global head of business development for fund services at Equity Trustees and key business driver for many years, has resigned, seeking a new yet-unknown challenge. Kalman, 54, has been with Equity Trustees since January 2000 and for the past three years has expanded his role to include additional responsibilities as managing director…

While many investors are watching the overall rotation of growth versus value – is it really a rotation? how long will it last? – there are various tilts to value which are also worth watching. One such tilt is a portfolio of stocks constructed with high dividend yields in mind, such as that offered by…

Factor manager Research Affiliates appears to be charging in where value managers are still nervous to tread, with a big call on the state of global markets and where the main opportunity lies – UK equities. Mike Aked, Research Affiliates director of research for Australia, said last week (March 17) that the firm had identified…

The biggest single investment category for major impact investors around the world is climate related, as it is for more general ESG investing. But “true impact investing’ is different. Another global webinar this month focusing on what climate change means for investors and managers was organised by US impact advisory group Tideline. Speakers included London-based…

After five years operating as a wholesale and institutional manager, the Wellington-based Lighthouse Investment Funds has signalled the broader market with a new retail international shares offering launched this month. Flying under the colours of fund-hosting business Implemented Investment Solutions (IIS), the Lighthouse Global Equity Fund mirrors the firm’s long-running offshore shares strategy first established…

The voices of women are swelling to a national rallying cry for justice and equality, Kara Keys, the chair of Women in Super, told sold-out lunches for the organisation last week. The guest speaker told them how to join in that cry. Keys, a trustee of Cbus and director of AIST, was introducing one of…

Chant West’s 2021 Super Fund Awards will be held, live and in person, at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney on the evening of May 26, it was announced last week. The Chant West Awards, an important black-tie event in the institutional investment world’s annual calendar, were held virtually last year, along with most other industry…

In the face of a surge of interest among institutional investors in the carbon management of their portfolios, asset consultancy Frontier has explored ways asset owners can take a top-down approach to carbon exposure to work with more obvious bottom-up strategies. Most asset owners now actively manage their exposures to climate change risks within their…