News

Australia has a long way to go to catch up to its major trading partners in its planned spend on new infrastructure, notwithstanding Prime Minister Morrison’s pledge of $100 billion over the next 10 years. This should be something for investors to savour, as well as those who benefit from the multiplier effect for employment….

The MSCI group has launched a swathe of indices for the Australian market, its first single-country domestic indices outside the US. There are 52 Australian indices to choose from on top of custom indices, the first two of which are about to be launched by a big super fund. As well as a full range…

The $44 billion State Super NSW fund has made its first single-country market investment outside Australia, into an ‘All China’ equities strategy managed by Ninety One. The rare allocation and precise choice of mandate were focused on risk mitigation, according to State Super. State Super, an old NSW public service fund is closed to new…

Federated Hermes Investors is sharpening its focus on the Asia Pacific region, with the establishment of a subsidiary in Sydney, with a new head of distribution for Australia and New Zealand, and the recruitment of two new sales directors for its Singapore office. New strategies from US parent Federated Investors are expected to follow. Federated…

by David Chaplin The almost NZ$50 billion (A$46.7 billion) NZ Superannuation Fund has made several changes to its manager line-up and asset allocation over the last year including taking a $1.6 billion bond portfolio in-house. Northern Trust and BlackRock were the biggest losers. According to the NZ Super annual report released last week (October 21),…

The separation of qualitative from quantitative analysis and ratings at Morningstar, the global giant research, ratings and funds management company, goes way back, prior even to its expansion into Australia and New Zealand more than 20 years ago. That separation is now to end, at least at leadership level. The amalgamation of the two is…

As super funds still struggle to build and manage their own better pension products, conscious of the ticking demographic clock, one of the key aspects to doing so will be the establishment of the most appropriate benchmark. Parametric runs through the possibilities. In a brief research note, ‘Income Targeting in a Retirement Portfolio – too…

After 35 years in the super industry and having recently turned 60, Geoff Peck is to retire in December from Chant West, where he is head of client services. He is proud of the industry in which he spent his career. While most of his career – apart from the early years and the last…

Almost half of the top 500 global fund manager brands have disappeared in the last decade, the latest Thinking Ahead Institute annual review of the sector has found. A total of 232 names on the 2009 list of 500 largest asset managers were not on the 2019 list. Pre-dating the COVID-19 crisis, the Thinking Ahead…

The United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment, the global organisation representing about 3,300 pension funds and fund managers, has upgraded its presence in Australia with the appointment of a head of Australia and New Zealand. Sheela Veerappan was appointed to the vacant role in October, after having joined PRI in 2019 as a relationship manager…

Brookvine, an Australasian distribution partner for offshore and Australian fund managers, which tends to specialise in non-traditional investment offerings, has signed up a US-based global quant macro manager, Welton Global. Welton’s global macro strategy has had strong returns for a long period but really showed what it can do in the sudden global downturn across…

Brian Delaney, the soon-to-retire executive director at QIC, has had only four jobs in his career, but he managed to turn his first one, as a professional basketball player, into a central part of his family’s life. His two daughters – Alex, 25, and Bree, 22, are still playing, while his wife Gail, a former…