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Many investors may be wondering whether there is any value left in domestic fixed-income markets. While outright yields may look tight on a historical basis, we contend that spread sectors still provide attractive risk-adjusted returns relative to cash and government bonds. Indeed, there still exist a number of compelling risk/return opportunities for active managers to…

With the end of the month comes another round of investment manager portfolio updates. This week we move our attention to tech company valuations, with the Nasdaq 100 down close to 7% in the last month. The August updates from Hyperion Asset Management, one of the top-performing global equity strategies over the last 12 months,…

This week we interviewed Co-founder and Co-CEO Orni Daniel from Gefen Technologies, an Israeli-based digital distribution platform that has been initially aimed at Australia’s insurance market. The company is looking at an ASX listing towards the end of the year. After speaking with Daniel, it was immediately apparent that Gefen Technologies has built what looks…

Another fintech is heading for the ASX screens, with online mortgage provider Lendi poised to push “go” on an initial public offering (IPO) that could see it list at a market capitalisation of between $500 million-$550 million. Lendi specialises in the home loan market: its software platform matches borrowers with more than 35 lenders. The…

The S&P 500 Index reached a historic high on February 19th of this year, only to break that record less than six months later. On its face this sounds reasonable, however when considering the unprecedented nature of the events that transpired in-between, this is downright shocking. Over this six-month period the S&P 500 realised its…

Governance is the pillar of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles that investors have been actively considering for the longest period of time. This is not surprising, as in some ways, it could be said that governance is probably the most important aspect of ESG. An organisation’s board’s role is to appoint the CEO and…

While the active versus passive debate rolls on, and on, across the investment world, some active managers have gone to the ‘dark side’, at least partially, by adding more quantitative inputs for new strategies, such as thematic investing. The concept of ‘thematic’ investing, which describes the strategy of identifying sectors of the economy expected to…

Notwithstanding the political and superannuation industry talk of an infrastructure-led economic recovery in Australia, and elsewhere, the listed infrastructure sector has been looking decidedly unloved of late. And much of the sector’s underperformance against the broader market this year has not been justified in terms of company earnings. Guiseppe Corona, the London-based head of global…

They say that the first year of a new business is the hardest. Although there were moments when it felt like it might be, it hasn’t turned out that way for Sam Lecornu, Duke Lo and John Lam, partners in new Hong Kong-based Asian fund manager Stonehorn Global Partners. From a standing start in June…

I’m not sure about you, but it took me at least a few weeks into the first lockdown to really become comfortable with video-conferencing and engaging with clients in new and unique ways. If you still haven’t embraced the change, perhaps stop reading now…..With the initial hurdle passed, it’s time to move on to the…

There are probably few things more certain to glaze the eyes of investors than discussing risk-adjusted returns or efficient frontiers, never mind Sharpe ratios and the like. To be transparent, how many within the industry really focus on these statistics when creating a portfolio? As the momentum shifts away from 60/40 portfolios, the traditional volatility…

Video games have traditionally been associated with laziness, requiring someone to stay at home in a dark room when they could be doing more ‘productive’ things with their lives. How things have changed! The 2019 Fortnite World Championships attracted 40 million entrants chasing a US$30 million ($41 million) prize pool, with the finals televised in…