Analysis

We don’t have any specialist event-driven hedge fund managers in Australia or New Zealand but, if we did, they would likely be riding high on an influx of new funding. With various forms of disruption, uncertain markets, and continuing CEO and corporate hubris, this is an M&A climate. According to the latest numbers from eVestment,…

by Greg Bright Some people say that investment styles are dead. Certainly, ‘value’ has struggled for several years, compared with ‘growth’, ‘momentum’ and ‘quality’. If those people are right, what does that mean for how a big super fund chooses a manager? Muddying the waters is the smart-versus-dumb beta discussion. We all know that plain-vanilla…

Hexavest, the top-down global manager which is part of the Eaton Vance stable, has come out strongly in favour of investors giving consideration to changing their mix of exposures, if they have a mix, to the broad China market. While there are risks, ‘A’ shares look the best bet compared with the alternatives. In a…

The outlook for the Australian securitisation market is healthy, with the majority of issuers expecting to maintain or increase issuance in the next two years. This is despite slowing demand for consumer and mortgage credit and tough macro-economic conditions, according to a report by Perpetual and the Australian Securitisation Forum (ASF). The 2019 Australian Securitisation…

by David Chaplin Google, Netflix and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway are among a group of 150 plus top US companies to miss the cut in the recently-released S&P 500 ESG (environmental, social and governance) index. S&P, which built the new ESG benchmark in cahoots with Swiss fund manager RobecoSAM, excluded Netflix and Berkshire Hathaway from the…

by Greg Bright For big profit-for-member super funds, good investment performance is a given. They have delivered for a long time. It’s the member services area which is top of mind. In the first of two articles based on discussions with senior executives of the finalists in the 2019 Chant West ‘Super Fund of the…

Two Queensland academics and pension fund advisors, Michael E. Drew and Adam N. Walk, have published a 170-page ‘monograph’, or ‘book’, as they refer to it, which examines in detail and sets out guidelines for the governance of pension funds. While written for a global audience, it could become a seminal work and a must-read…

With more than 2.8 million individual members, and more than $500 billion in assets, likely over the next 10 years to move into the pension phase of big funds, or out of them altogether if they’re not careful, the question is how to treat those assets, and their owners, in and around the process. It…

The latest annual study commissioned by AIST, using SuperRatings research and analysis, shows profit-for-member funds continuing to dominate commercial and retail-orientated funds for performance, and why. But the gap between the two opposing groups is narrowing. The study looks at the three main investment categories of fees, asset allocation and performance. The advantage profit-for-member funds have…

First State Investments, the global manager better known in Australia and New Zealand as Colonial First State Global Asset Management, has become the first Australian fund manager to make the list of the top 25 foreign managers dealing with either inbound or outbound China investments. According to the latest annual survey by influential China funds…

Should companies pay their employees more or less? Or should they concentrate on improving non-monetary benefits, such as culture? Should they allow workplace flexibility, for men as well as women? Or is all that fluffy stuff going to impede a company’s returns and stock price? A rare discussion on these aspects of ESG analyses was…

It may be difficult to distinguish between them, but the increasingly popular ‘trend’ or ‘thematic’ investing style is not about chasing the latest ‘fad’. For super funds and other long-term investors, it’s about studying ‘mega trends’ and working out how to get on board. According to a recent report by global manager Robeco, investing with…