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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…

Australia remains tiny on a world scale for alternative investments, with just 1-2 per cent of the global market, despite having consistently good performance, particularly among private equity players. This is the view of Mark O’Hare, the founder and chief executive of Preqin. Speaking to more than 450 investors and managers in Australia and New…

Short and long-term factors are benefitting investors and their managers which have either entered the private markets space or expanded their capabilities. To the chagrin of detractors, Australia’s big not-for-profit funds can hang their hats largely on private markets for much of their outperformance. We all know UK based global manager Schroders is very old,…

The case for venture capital as an institutional investment has never been more apparent. As others in the private markets generally are saying, “where else are you going to invest?” While a new model doesn’t make it any easier for Australia’s big funds to invest locally, it does so globally. The new model consists of…

Insurance-linked securities and catastrophe (cat) bonds have become increasingly popular investments for institutional investors over the last 20 or-so years, since the market took off due to a spate of hurricanes in the US. COVID-19 has added a new twist. There may now be a capacity problem. According to two complementary research notes by investment…

With rising insurance premiums and continued fears about the impact of climate change – and whether the world is reacting effectively enough – insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds are going through a growth spurt. The March market slump due to COVID-19, which weighed heavily on returns for the first quarter, enabled the asset class to…

The job of global custodians is about to get a lot more important as the spread of new technologies takes hold throughout the investment world. A recent paper by Northern Trust’s asset servicing arm ‘reimagines’ the investment world in 2030, looking at what a fully digital world is likely to involve. Over the last decade,…

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…