Analysis

by Greg Bright With a big question mark over both equities and bonds because of their valuations, institutional investors have been seeking, for some time, to further diversify their portfolios with uncorrelated assets. Increasingly, they are combining several trends to use risk premia strategies to meet this aim. At an investor roundtable in Melbourne last…

A surge in funds manager searches by institutional investors in the year to March was led by appointments in private markets, in both number of searches and the size of the mandates, according to the quarterly report from search consultant bfinance. The bfinance quarterly analysis also shows that there was a significant increase in interest in…

Comment by Greg Bright There has been lots of talk about AMP within the funds management and advisory sectors of the industry in recent weeks. Everyone, including insiders, has a story or two and has heard many more. Who was to blame; what can be done to save AMP? But the announcement that former CBA…

What Australians call ‘micro caps’, of course, are not what the Americans call them. Ours are not only a lot smaller, they have different risk/return characteristics. Brookvine, an Australian manager and packager of investment strategies, is about to round out its range of micro-cap funds. They are worth a good look. Brookvine, based in leafy…

by Greg Bright For many folk in the industry, the name change from BT Investment Management to Pendal Group, at a ‘ringing-of-the-bell’ ceremony at the ASX last Friday, was just a name change. For the old timers, the amateur historians and industry observers amongst us, it was much more than that. The King is dead;…

BMO Global Asset Management, which has long been an active ESG-orientated manager, has shown in its latest annual ‘Responsible Investment Review’ how the growing acceptance of ‘sustainable development goals’ (SDGs) can be mapped to allow greater understanding of a portfolio’s impact on the world. Richard Wilson, BMO GAM’s chief executive and CIO, says in the…

The Morningstar quarterly view of asset classes, published last week, emphasises the over-valuation of most equities and bond markets, including Australia’s. Despite a few minor pockets of value, the big research house has gone longer to cash in its own recommendations. The quarterly ‘economic briefing’ says that, although key equity asset classes recorded losses over the…

The annual assessment of international managers operating in, selling to and selling from China, has shown some changes among the top ranks. China is now the ‘priority for most global managers’, according to the latest Z-Ben study. UBS, Schroders, BlackRock, Fidelity and Manulife are the big winners. Z-Ben, the Shanghai-based research firm which specialises in…

J. Christopher Giancarlo told a US Government ‘House Committee’ hearing last year that the failure – of the whole world – to build a system of transparency for counterparty risk by big institutions was “certainly the most disappointing” of mandates which emerged from the global financial crisis. Now, DTCC has produced a new guide. While…

by Greg Bright QIC, the $84 billion Queensland Government-owned fund manager, has been diversifying overseas for several years and now has a big presence, especially, in the US. But that is not all that has changed since Damien Frawley took over as chief executive in July 2012. He said, in a wide-ranging interview recently, that…

By Donald A. Steinbrugge* The Federal Reserve increased its target range for the federal funds rate by 25 bps to 1.50-1.75 per cent on March 21. This marks the sixth incremental increase since December, 2015, following the dramatic cut in rates during the financial crisis. In addition, the Fed has indicated that it is forecasting…

The managed-futures space continues to evolve, with some managers, such as Winton and Aspect, using non-trend signals to complement their price momentum inputs, according to the latest ‘Sector Wrap’ report on alternatives by Morningstar Australia. Investors need to be wary of rising asset prices. The report says that trend-following across asset classes has boasted strong…