News

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….

by David Chaplin Morninstar, formerly a minority shareholder in the world’s largest ESG research house, Sustainalytics, has bought the whole company for an extra A$300 million. The deal gives Morningstar a leg-up into the institutional space, which has been a weakness for the firm. Morningstar announced last week that it was acquiring the outstanding 60…

A recent client note from the big global technology company SS&C says there is a growing need for “flexibility, agility and resiliency” in both technology and operating models. While this might seem, at first glance, an obvious statement, it probably deserves some thought. The client note, ‘Future Super: The Need to be Flexible’ says that,…

by Greg Bright The cash holdings of big super funds outweigh any projected drawdowns because of the Government’s $20,000 early-release program for disadvantaged members by a big factor, according to figures compiled by Rainmaker Information. In fact, super funds have nearly $400 billion in ‘allocated’ cash and even more in ‘operational’ cash held mainly by…

by Alex Dunnin* In an endeavour to calm down the speculation around the COVID crisis and super fund liquidity, Rainmaker Information compiled a tally of March investment returns from 15 MySuper products run by not for profit (NFP) funds that declare daily unit prices or daily crediting rates. The results are that, in March, NFP super funds…

In 1999, towards the end of the internet bubble, there was a lot of talk about people now being able to work from home and, perhaps, being more productive and happier in their jobs, sounding the death knell for mainstream office space. It didn’t happen. Will it happen this time after we come through COVID-19?…

by Greg Bright Jim Savage and I were collaborating on an analytical article to attempt to ascertain the importance of luck in funds management. Suddenly, we may not be able to meet in person again for six months or more. But David Walsh, the gambler of MONA fame, has come to the rescue. His last…

Graeme Russell, the soon-to-retire chief executive of Media Super, has seen it all. On July 1, 2008, for instance, he was a trustee director of what was then JUST Super and a director of what was then the timber industry fund TISS. On that day, he was involed in two concurrent mergers with five funds…

by Denis Carroll* Group consensus is an amazing thing. How many times in the recent past, up until COVID-19 hit, have we heard expert commentators and fund managers tell us everything was looking good for a global recovery? Prior to the pandemic, the US continued to look strong going forward, Europe was making moderate gains…

Selvie Shaqiri has three main aims at her new job for Goal Group of Companies, running the APAC business for the global securities class actions recovery and withholding tax reclamation company: strengthen client engagement, improve efficiencies, and expand the business. Class actions are becoming big business around the world and especially in Australia, which has…

In 2011, professor John Cochrane of the University of Chicago came up with the term “factor zoo”. A fan of factor investing, he felt, however, it had become “too much of a good thing”. Since about that time, the growth in new factor strategies purporting to deliver excess returns from systematic investing techniques has accelerated….