Analysis

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…

Everyone loves a good IPO story. Exopharm, up 175 per cent in the year of listing, last year, and Adriatic Metals, up 188 per cent. Then there was Ardea Resources the year before, up 850 per cent in the year of listing. But such sensational examples mask the real story across the IPO market. According…

For people doing operational due diligence on fund managers and other service providers for institutional investors, the examination of audited financial statements, a crucial part of the process, can be particularly difficult. Here’s a guide from Castle Hall, the global due diligence specialist. In the latest ‘primer’ in its ‘Due Diligence University’ industry education series,…

The dominos have started to fall for Australian-related class actions with the market having become “passive enough” that investors are looking to update their policies to ensure they can partake in the potential gains from legal actions. Two high-profile cases, Crown Resorts and Vocation, have deadlines today (March 4) for investor registration. According to Financial…

Chinese stock markets received a huge boost last week following the call by index provider MSCI to up its China A shares inclusion factor from the current 5 per cent to 20 per cent by the end of this year. The MSCI move could see up to US$125 billion flow into Chinese shares as funds…

Institutional investors are demanding more corporate disclosure on sustainability, remuneration and business strategy to guide proxy-voting decisions, a new global survey has found. In a release, Kiran Vasantham, Morrow Sodali director of investor engagement, said: “This survey provides issuers with valuable insights on investor expectations and voting policies.” Morrow Sodali is an international corporate governance advisory…

Jonathan Armitage, the CIO of MLC, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s AVCJ Private Equity and Venture Forum in Sydney, March 5-7. He has the timeless topic: ‘Global Investing in Turbulent Times: how are we positioning ourselves for the future?’ The Asian Venture Capital Journal reports on a short question and answer discussion…

The reporting season for ASX-listed companies which has started this month is shaping up as the most intriguing – and important – since the global financial crisis. Will sentiment and noise overshadow fundamental strength? Well known for his published analyses of the reporting by Australian companies and their pre-and-post reporting performance, Reece Birtles, the CIO…

Many big investors would be better off building their own diverse portfolio of hedge funds than using certain types of the many multi-asset strategies and products now on the market, according to a new paper by Mercer. The paper, ‘Making Sense of Multi-Asset’, focuses on two of the most popular of the four types of…