News

While APRA has asked big super funds and other institutions – and for them to ask their service providers – about their plans to deal with the pandemic, the big funds and their advisors are already on the case as much as you could expect them to be. No-one knows what’s going to happen next….

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) data suppliers could be pulling in a collective US$1 billion in revenue by next year, according to a new paper by European consultancy firm, Opimas. The Opimas study found the rapidly expanding appetite for ESG investing – especially in Europe – fed the new breed of data suppliers some US$617…

Ironbark Asset Management, the third-party marketing and multi-affiliate manager, is working on an SMA with a wealth advisory firm, concentrating on a multi-asset strategy. Ironbark Asset Management will be the RE. Ironbark, which represents assets of about $2.9 billion in the ‘multi-asset’ product sector, was started by former Deutsche Asset Management chief executive Chris Larsen…

Institutional allocation to global fixed income strategies has been rising in recent times, according to the latest research rep[ort from Foresight Analytics, an Australian-based specialist investment research firm. “Yield-based” strategies have stood out, while other manager performances have been “mixed”. The ‘Global Fixed Income Report‘ for 2019 says that the global fixed income sector and…

MMC, the Auckland-based administration and consulting firm, has acquired about half of the equity in Brisbane-based super fund administrator IFAA. MMC says it is a “passive” investment and that future technological synergies will flow both ways across the Tasman. IFAA is well known in the Australian super industry for its bespoke personal service for members,…

by Greg Bright Venture capital used to be the “red-headed step child” of the investment industry, an annual private equity and venture industry conference was told last week. Sheridan Lee, a long-time third-party marketer for both mainstream and alternative managers, said the times had changed. Super funds were coming on board with venture. “Ten years…

Mavis would have been proud of Jane Caro, the writer and documentary maker, last week, when she delivered stirring speeches at the annual ‘Mavis Robertson International Women’s Day’ events held by Women in Super. Caro managed to make even the men present both laugh out loud and sigh with despair. It was a masterful performance….

EAM Investors, a San Diego-based global small and micro-cap specialist manager, is looking to capitalise on the “innovation, disruption and re-invention” happening in the corporate world, especially in the small-cap space. “We’re looking for change in a company at the margin,” according to Travis Prentice. On a visit to Australia last week, the chief executive…

Scottish Widows has created a specialist responsible investment team to monitor sustainable activity across its range of funds. Unlike Australian and New Zealand funds, which tend to integrate ESG functions into their overall investment processes, UK funds more often outsource the delivery of their specialist ethical options. The Lloyds-owned Stg150 billion (A$252 billion) fund manager…

Despite the best intentions of divestment advocates, fossil fuels are unlikely to vanish from the global energy mix any time soon, according to a recent AMP Capital paper. In fact, both fossil fuel use and the global output of carbon dioxide look set to increase over the coming decades as population growth and ascendant emerging…

Fidelity International took out the major ‘fund manager of the year’ award at Morningstar’s annual event last Friday evening (February 28). Nearly 200 people, many of them advisors, also heard Jamie Wickham’s upbeat view on the advice industry. Wickham, the managing director of Morningstar for Australia and New Zealand, said, while introducing the proceedings, that…

On a day of celebration for the late Mavis Robertson’s achievements in the advancement of women in the super industry, along with her many other achievements, today (March 2), Morningstar is publishing a report on the progress of gender diversity in the industry over the past 20 years. In a nutshell: it’s zero progress. The…