News

New Zealand investment administrator MMC has acquired the remaining half of Australian administrator IFAA Group from interests associated with its managing director and co-founder Neil Harvey. Harvey, who remains in the managing director role after the deal’s completion, said the firm would continue to look for expansion opportunities outside IFAA’s traditional base of Queensland. He…

Maritime Super, the 53-year-old $5.8 billion industry fund for maritime and waterside workers, plans to merge its investments with those of Hostplus, the 35-year-old $53 billion industry fund for the hospitality industry, but retain its separate board, self-administration and branding. The announcement last week (February 11) followed earlier and lengthy discussions between Maritime and Mine…

The decline in the total number of qualified financial advisers accelerated towards the end of last year, at a time when the Government and advice industry itself are grappling to produce more affordable advice for the general population. The December quarter’s report from Adviser Ratings, published last week (February 3), indicates an industry sector approaching…

As the dust settles on the Government’s Retirement Income Review, the search for the most appropriate and cost-effective strategies for both large groups of people and individuals has resumed, aided by some new academic work which sets principles and rules for big super funds, financial advisers and product providers. Geoff Warren, an associate professor at…

Real asset investors are turning to face the strange environment of 2021 as technological and social trends mix with a global pandemic to fast-forward fundamental changes, according to the latest AMP Capital market outlook. “Disruption has accelerated changes underway in modern living – and the pandemic is still far from over,” the AMP Capital report…

David Coogan notches up his 30th straight CMSF conference this May, at which he resigns from the finance, risk and compliance committee of AIST, and accepts another round of grateful applause for his services to the super industry and heads into semi-retirement. When he attended the first CMSF in 1990, held almost as an act…

Shortly after David Neal was appointed as the inaugural CIO of the Future Fund, the guardians approved the appointment of global custodian Northern Trust as its asset servicing partner. No big deal, you’d think. Well, welcome to the world of high-profile public sector investing. After the announcement, in May 2007, Sydney’s ‘Daily Telegraph’ tabloid led…

Parametric Portfolio Associates has promoted Whitlam Zhang to fill the research role formerly held by Raewyn Williams, who resigned late last year. He becomes manager research and strategy for Australia and New Zealand. In the role, Zhang reports to both Chris Briant, the Australia and New Zealand head of Parametric’s parent Eaton Vance, and Paul…

Interim Mercer NZ chief investment officer, Ronan McCabe, has been upgraded to permanent following a long recruitment process to replace, Philip Houghton-Brown. The Sydney-based McCabe stepped into the breach last September when Houghton-Brown departed for the head of investment solutions role at BT Funds. Post the official internal promotion, he continues to hold his previous…

The gap between fund flows for ESG-focused funds and their regular equity, multi-asset and bond counterparts in emerging markets widened further in the past six months, according to figures from Informa Financial Intelligence, a global data provider. Informa’s EPFR (Emerging Portfolio Fund Research) database for emerging markets (EM) flows, shows that while the fund flows…

The United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment has elevated the importance of human rights and other social issues, including labour rights, in its latest three-year policy strategy. But climate change remains the number one issue for the organisation in the coming years. PRI, which was formed in 2006 and is the only global organisation addressing…

In an attempt to de-politicise the increasingly tense debate around the future of super, research group Chant West has published a summary of its views across a range of recently raised questions and ill-informed commentary. Chant West, which last year had a changing of the guard with the takeover by Zenith Investment Partners, produced a…