News

In an overdue attempt to improve how co-mingled superannuation investment categories are presented to the general membership base, David Bell, a former fund manager and fund CIO who now runs the Conexus Institute, has called on the industry to comment on a working group’s recent deliberations on standardisation. He said last week (July 23) that…

Asset servicing contracts between big super funds and fund managers and their custodian banks are getting increasingly complex. Drew Vaughan, a specialist consultant in the space, recently oversaw a new contract between TelstraSuper and its incumbent provider, J.P. Morgan, in a competitive tender process. Assessing new services was an important part of this process. The…

Melinda Clarke, the much-loved former industry events organiser, passed away on July 12 after a two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer. More importantly, she was the much-loved wife of Jason Clarke, an investment industry entrepreneur, and the mother to their three young children: Maya, Martell and Hendricks. She was only 42. A virtual ‘celebration of life’ service…

Yarra Capital, the diversified Melbourne-based equities boutique, is building an impressive and experienced board, with the latest appointment announced last week (July 20). It is Mark Lazberger, who was most recently the chief executive of the former Colonial First State Global Asset Management (now First Sentier Investors, owned by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group). Lazberger, who…

by David Chaplin AMP Capital cleaned-out its top ranks in Australia last week that included the exit of its well-respected head of real estate, Carmel Hourigan. In a statement, AMP Capital said, along with Hourigan, the leadership shake-out would also see the departures of three other executives. The three others to depart are: Adrian Williams,…

The industry-owned Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the post-trade infrastructure for much of the global financial services industry, has announced its ‘Margin Transit Utility’ (MTU) community has grown to 50 firms representing thousands of ‘credit support annexes’ (CSAs). Users include dealer and buy-side organisations around the world. Given recent and continuing market volatility, as…

Comment by Greg Bright Liberal backbenchers Andrew Bragg, a Victorian-born NSW senator, and Tim Wilson, the member for Goldstein in Victoria and, interestingly, a former human rights commissioner, both appear hell-bent on destroying any chance of bipartisanship over Australia’s superannuation system. You could also say they both appear hell-bent on destroying the whole system. A…

Industry super funds are spending at least $19.5 billion on investment projects across Australia as part of a three-year pipeline that will create more than 200,000 jobs. The planned investments were identified as part of a survey of industry super funds, IFM Investors’ clients and Industry Super Property Trust (ISPT) investors. In these troubled times,…

Health and community services fund HESTA has backed the development of an innovative ‘village’ providing residential care for sufferers from dementia. HESTA invested $19 million to assist the construction and operation of the ‘Korongee Village’ in Hobart through its ‘Social Impact Investment Trust’. The fund hopes other large investors will be encouraged to invest in…

In his annual detailed forecast of markets, managers – and their styles – which this year involves many uncertainties, Peter Warnes, Morningstar Australia’s head of equities research, told the firm’s clients to “remain cautious and increasingly vigilant”. While the current situation is different from anything seen in recent memory, there are insights to be gleaned…

Frontier Advisors has analysed the performance of equities fund managers across the final quarter of the 2019-20 financial year. In a note released to its clients, Frontier reported that growth-focussed managers outstripped value managers by a considerable margin over the quarter, particularly across international markets where some very strong results were recorded. While the underperformance…

ARP Investments, a New York-based global quantitative manager, has entered the Australian market through a distribution partnership with a Sydney-based placement agent, Axius Partners. The staff-owned ARP is currently raising capital for its liquid alternative strategies, which have proved popular strategies in Australia in recent years. ARP, which was formed in 2013, manages about US$2…