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David Simpson, the first employee in Australia for FactSet, who opened the Sydney office in 1998, has retired from the firm to be replaced by another experienced data and technology executive, Natalia Stansall, who recently finished up at MSCI Inc after 15 years there. The transition was completed earlier this month with Stansall formally taking…

If not for the pandemic, ESG factors could have been a major trend in hedge fund and private equity investing this year, according to global advisory group EY. Alternatives managers have a way to go to satisfy investor interest in ESG. The impact of the crisis on client relationships, felt more by private equity managers…

Assets in alternative investments are expected to grow by 9.8 per cent a year over the next five years, to hit US$17 trillion (A$23.4 trillion) by 2025, according to the latest research by Preqin, the global alternatives research and data provider. Private equity will double to US$9.11 trillion and Asia will be a “huge driver”….

by Greg Bright Loftus Peak, Australian global equities boutique, has become the second manager to launch a ‘quoted managed fund’. This looks set to become a strong trend in retail distribution, with a host of managers lining up for the new form of listing and an extra administrator entering this part of the market, Link…

Early research on ethnicity as well as gender by Willis Towers Watson should significantly broaden the discussion about potential economic benefits from improved diversity among boards and management at super funds, corporates and other organisations. In the first public airing of its latest thoughts on what it terms ‘cognitive diversity’, Willis Towers Watson (WTW) says:…

Citibank China Co will become the first global bank with a full-service custody operation in China from the new year. This follows its debut as one of only two to go live with securities lending contracts early this month (November 1). As announced last week, Citi and HSBC both went live with cross-border lending clients…

Research Affiliates, US-based global quant manager which has established offices in Sydney and Melbourne in the past couple of years, has called for compulsory changes in the way companies report carbon emissions to assist the investment world make more informed decisions about responses to the impact of climate change. Vitali Kalesnik, partner and European director…

NZ-based FNZ, the financial software firm run out of London, will have to offload its $260 million-plus Australian software asset within months after the UK competition regulator smothered the deal in a final ruling last week. In a decision handed down on Thursday, November 5, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ordered FNZ to sell…

BMO Global Asset Management has recruited Harry Page from Rainmaker Information as the Sydney-based assistant v.p. for intermediary sales, primarily focused on two of the firm’s subsidiaries, Pyrford International and LGM Investments. This will allow director Michael Angwin, who has been at BMO Global Asset Management for six years, to focus more attention on the…

It’s time to adopt a different view of emerging markets, according to Will Sutcliffe. Time to shake off the connotations of a third-world marketplace and recognise that the major emerging markets are the lands of giants, not demons. Such is the evocative view of Baillie Gifford and its emerging markets specialists. Sutcliffe, the head of…

Capital Group has a handy person to call on when it comes to looking at US politics from an Australian perspective – a former Australian ambassador to the US and Capital’s vice chairman, Michael Thawley. He thinks investors shouldn’t be too worried by a Biden victory. In a webinar held while the result was still…

About half of institutional asset owner costs get lost in the wash, according to a new study by CEM Benchmarking. An analysis of 24 large global asset owners representing over US$4.4 trillion found 49 per cent of investment costs were unreported. “Our research indicates that, at best, only half of true total investment management costs…