Analysis

by Greg Bright Artificial Intelligence is coming to the investment world sooner than you think. Vontobel Asset Management, the big Zurich-based global manager, now has a product in beta-testing mode, where its investment committee decisions are based on AI. In fact, the committee members are all avatars. And its returns are top decile. Daniel Seiler,…

by David Chaplin External fund managers barely get a look in on the US$37.8 trillion held by large government-owned investors globally, a new report found. According to the ‘Global Public Investor 2019’ study, almost 70 per cent of the institutions captured by the survey allocate between only zero and10 per cent to external managers. The…

A study by the Economist newspaper’s ‘Intelligence Unit’ on asset owners’ priorities in the ESG space has shown that, within the largest cohort of the top 100 asset owners, in Asia, there has been a significant increase in awareness of ESG issues over the past few years. The Asian-based big global investors, perhaps surprisingly, are…

While presenting a generally upbeat outlook for its continued expansion globally, Link Group addressed brokers and investors in London last week on the issue of its regulatory issue regarding the failure of one of its glamour clients, the Woodford Global Equity Income Fund. In his presentation, John McMurtrie, the global chief executive, said that Link…

Institutional investors tend to be sceptical of the benefits of ETFs. ETFs have a wide spread, which can challenge an investor’s position. But increasingly they are being used for tactical purposes. BetaShares is setting the pace with new ETF offerings. Martin Currie Investment Management is the latest in the new BetaShares list, totalling 53 ETFs….

Variations in personal circumstances show that a uniform rate of SG cannot be effective in targeting adequacy for all. However, we must choose a suitable rate – one that provides adequacy for most while not being excessively generous to too many.

Australian institutional investors redeemed about US$1.7 billion from their equity managers in the March quarter, erasing the US$1.6 billion they had invested in the December quarter. The latest redemptions were the same as for the whole of Europe in the same period. The latest data from eVestment, the global investment performance research firm, show that…

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…