Analysis

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…

Northern Trust, the big global custodian bank and fund manager, has launched in Australia what it calls an ‘integrated trading solution’. The firm has produced a white paper which discusses the trading issues. It’s better to outsource, they say. The paper makes the case for outsourcing securities trading, as well as other aspects of value-add…

by Norman Tweeboom* The Royal Commission and Productivity Commission have sparked a ‘New Age of Transparency’ for Australia’s superannuation industry, joining it in the global march towards better retirement saving outcomes and experiences. How successful it will be relative to other global retirement systems depends on how well the superannuation ecosystem can future proof their…

As if we didn’t have enough regulatory issues of our own to contend with, the goings on in Europe – not just Brexit – are providing Australia’s big super funds and their managers with more and more grief. DTCC, at least, is trying to help out. In Australia last week to speak with clients and…

All the forces of regulators, advisors and customers in the super and funds management industry point, inexorably, to further pressure on costs for all players. Areas which have not yet seen headline cost pressure from these forces are now likely to feel them. A new white paper by Northern Trust, called ‘Catching the Wave: Global…

The world’s biggest and most famous, or infamous, private equity firm has revisited its opinions on the macro environment just two months after already delivering its original views, in January. The verdict is: it’s OK. Thanks for the insight. The KKR white paper published recently by Henry McVey, the firm’s head of global macro and…

Has the factor magic disappeared? New research by index provider FTSE Russell suggests the answer to that question lies in the eye of the beholder. A just-published FTSE Russell paper says recent reports of the death of factors may be premature. Factor, or ‘smart beta’, investing targets a number of allegedly persistent characteristics buried in…

The AIST has 55 profit-for-member fund members. There are another 142 APRA-regulated large funds, 117 of which are for-profit commercial funds. A majority of the total of 194 APRA-regulated large funds has already outsourced most or all of its investments and many have outsourced other administrative or even trustee-type functions. APRA in late 2017 identified…

After what has been the most anticipated company reporting season for several years, the verdict is that the market has been a bit too pessimistic. The results are, by and large, not too bad. More ASX-listed companies reported results beat broker consensus forecasts for sales than didn’t, and while there have been more misses for…