News

John Casey, a long-time consultant and co-founder of several consulting firms, including Casey Quirk, died last week of a heart attack. He was 77. Casey Quirk is best known in Australasia because of its director Benjamin Phillips, who orchestrated the sale of the business to Deloitte. Casey, who died at his home in Wilton, Connecticut,…

The A$45 billion Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) of New Zealand has sold down about $A47 million of energy stocks since rewriting its exclusion list last December in the wake of political pressure. The NZ Government fund is one of the most respected in Australasia. Paula Rebstock, ACC chair, told a parliamentary annual review committee in…

The Australian funds management market experienced record net outflows during March, outpacing similar trends in Asia and Europe, new figures from Calastone reveal. Calastone, the global back-office fund service provider, reported net outflows across its Australian network hit almost A$4 billion in March as panicked investors headed for the exits. According to the Calastone metrics,…

The wholesale investment platform Powerwrap, which uses Praemium technology, has let go all of its sales and marketing team. The firm has also let go two junior sales people who hadn’t actually joined the company, but were contracted to do so. Will Davidson, the managing director of the listed company, did not return a contact…

In a world of low-to-no interest rates, real estate debt has become very interesting, especially given the COVID-19 crisis. After all, real estate is visible and debt is definable, with an agreed yield to investors. For active managers, the current environment is quite rosy compared with other asset classes. According to David Maki, a senior…

The Chant West Awards, being held by virtual medium – webinar – on May 10, are, once again, dominated by not-for-profit super funds in terms of the nominations. But not all of them are such. Commercial funds are coming back, it would seem. Especially in the innovative categories. The list of finalists show the usual big…

by Greg Bright Several big funds management firms, super funds and other service providers – probably more than we know – have instituted what we have all been expecting. They have made some senior, and a lot more junior, people redundant or moved them into part-time roles. Forget what the Government is trying to do,…

What better year than this for Chant West to adopt a ‘sustainability’ theme for its super fund Awards night, going ahead on May 14, via livestream. It’s actually in the daytime, too. So, no need for a black tie or little black dress. Click here to register The finalists in the final two awards, each…

The investable world of class actions is hotting up. Just as one big administrator, Goal Group, established an Asia Pacific office in Melbourne last month, now another big firm, Financial Recovery Technologies, has recruited father and son Brian and Lachlan Slade, to aid its expansion. Brian Slade was formerly the head of Australia and New…

Two senior marketers have left their firms this month, Ian Perkins at BNP Paribas Securities Services and Phillip Filippelis from BNY Mellon Investment Management, both based in Sydney. Neither was free to comment last week. Perkins had been with BNP Paribas Securities Services since early 2014, most recently as ‘head of asset owners’ for Asia…

The prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management, with the assistance of State Street, has produced a paper which questions long-held assumptions about the true volatility of private equity investments. It is particularly relevant right now when some big investors are under attack from conservative politicians. As reported in last week’s Investor Strategy News, Australian Liberal…

While multi-asset strategies have gained popularity in recent years, mostly due to Schroders’ success in Australia and internationally, they are not all the same. Morningstar has produced a report to help investors choose an appropriate multi-asset manager. The Morningstar report focuses on the recent market volatility, so it may not be a good long-term assessment….