Analysis

The man who dealt with the SARS virus in China nearly two decades ago is “hopeful’ the coronavirus would be similarly dealt with by April. Investors and a lot of Australian and other business people will be hoping he’s right. But Zhong Nanshan is now 83 and still head of the National Health Commission team…

by Greg Bright It’s difficult for investment managers right now. Most equity markets are fully valued, as are fixed income markets. In the fixed income and credit markets, the outlook is challenging. How can you have negative interest rates? So, what does a fiduciary investor, such as a big super fund, do? According to Mark…

For many super funds fixed income portfolios can be their poor cousins in terms of integrating hard-fought ESG principles. A recent study looks at how funds can go about amalgamating ESG and fixed income. John Streur, the chief executive of US-based ESG specialist Calvert Research & Management, is visiting Australia in March to address this…

by Greg Bright As the markets get more and more toppy the active-versus- passive, age-old argument, is swinging more toward the active managers. No-one wants to get caught in a bubble of cap-weighted index-hugging indices at the end of the longest bull market in history. So, what do you do? As an aside, Australia’s main…

When it comes to valuation, how ethical or not a firm is matters, according to an academic study by Augustin Landier, Professor of Finance at HEC Paris Business School, and his associates. People are prepared to pay more for an “ethical” stock and want to pay less for an “unethical” one. A new study by…

by Greg Bright David Hartley seems to be on several missions at the same time. The chair of the investment committee and a director of the $9.5 billion Australian Catholic Superannuation fund has come up with a workable concept to ease Australia’s housing affordability crisis. Along the way, he has also developed thoughts on other…

Active long-only strategies will continue to drive revenues for a majority of fund managers around the world for the next five years, despite the continued encroachment by index managers and fee compression in several markets, such as Australia. But the total fee issue is not a truly global phenomenon, according to Casey Quirk. Globally, asset…

China’s private equity and venture capital (PEVC) sector grew by 36 per cent in 2018, its lowest growth rate since 2014, hitting US$600 billion. This lower growth rate is perhaps understandable as total GDP grew only 6.2 per cent that year, the lowest in 27 years. But such growth rates can be misleading. What matters…

The size of the total super pie should hit $10.2 trillion within 20 years – by 2038 – compared with $2.7 trillion as at June 2018, according to modelling by consulting and actuarial firm Deloitte. In its annual review of the state of the super industry, Deloitte says that the rapid growth should continue despite…

Ahead of its launch of a proposed ‘Long-Term Investment Institute’, Martin Currie, the Edinburgh-based international equities house, has produced an interesting paper describing the strong link between long-termism and sustainability. There are differences in the two concepts, too. The paper,  ‘How Asset Owners Can Drive Sustainability’, written by David Sheasby, Martin Currie’s head of stewardship…

If you are an alternatives fund manager, forget the old world of America and Europe. The growth is in the new world of Asia and other developing markets. A new study by Preqin, the global investments research house, spells out the future for alternatives managers and their investors. The study says the alternatives sector will…

Smaller companies have disappointed since the global financial crisis, but they have still, slightly, outperformed large companies, at least in Australia. The disappointment comes from what is expected of smaller companies in rising markets. A research note published last week by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), poses the question: “The underperformance of the smaller companies…