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Reflecting the growing influence of SMSF trustees on the investment management landscape, Shed Media today launches a newsletter catering for this market – ‘The Rub’. Starting with an email-push distribution base of more than 33,000 investors and accountants who administer SMSFs, the newsletter will provide weekly news and information dedicated to the interests of individual…

by Greg Bright Gerard Parlevliet, the CIO and long-standing driving force behind Commonwealth Bank Group Super, retires this week after 38 years with the bank, 23 of them in the staff superannuation team. But not before he oversaw a significant restructure of the $10.6 billion portfolio. The fund, generally known as Group Super, recently completed…

The big challenge for industry and other not-for-profit super funds is to “keep the flame and the motivation alive and not let their culture die”, Garry Weaven said last week. It was clear from his short talk at an AIST lunch in Sydney that he has not lost that flame. The lunch included the launch…

While espousing the benefits of scale in super fund administration, as you would expect from Australia’s largest single administrator, Suzanne Holden is reticent about suggesting that size is the issue that some, including APRA, say. “There are some very successful boutique funds out there,” according to the chief executive of fund administration at Link Group,…

Commodities as an asset class have always inspired vigorous discussion, from academics who question the risk premia to investors who are wary of the relatively short cycles. But the current environment is looking very good, at least on the cyclical front. Two of Australia’s most experienced commodities specialists, brothers Andrew and Mathew Kaleel, believe that…

Omega Global Investors has broken out of the image of being a fixed-income only house through the launch this month of an ‘equity income’ fund, run by new recruit John Moore. The move coincides with the opening of a Sydney office. Omega is a Melbourne based boutique which started out in 2008 in indexed and…

The AIMA Australia Forum, the biggest hedge funds and alternatives conference on the Australian calendar, is expanding by offering concurrent streams for attendees this year. The Forum is on September 12 at the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney. Against the backdrop of improved investment conditions and a resurgence of interest in alternatives strategies, according to a…

by David Chaplin ANZ Investments has reshuffled and added to its Auckland-based team after repatriating some core portfolio management functions from Australia where the bank’s wealth division is looking to outsource manufacturing. In a note to clients, ANZ says the newly-established Investment Implementation Team (IIT) in Auckland would now host a raft of responsibilities formerly…

Bob Henricks, well-known Queensland industry fund trustee, has joined the board of Coolabah Capital, the $1.2 billion credit manager, which has strengthened both its governance and management in recent weeks. The manager has also recruited Ashley Kabel, a former hedge fund manager, as a portfolio manager. He joins from Cambridge Strategies in the UK where…

“If it ain’t broke, then break it” is not a bad way of thinking for active fund managers – not just contrarians and value managers; all active managers. And, it seems, journalists can help with that thought process. According to Matthew Benkendorf, the CIO and managing director of global manager Vontobel Asset Management, his portfolio…

Here’s a party trick: how many factors are there? Most investment professionals can name a dozen or so. Chris Briant, the managing director of Parametric Portfolio Associates in Australia, believes there are at least “several hundred” but only a handful that really matter. Parametric, the global specialist implementation manager, has recently started to push its…

BNP Paribas Investment Partners believes that European assets may be at a turning point compared with US assets. But the global manager thought the same thing about this early last year too. So its optimism is cautious. Visiting Australia and New Zealand last week, Daniel Morris, the firm’s London-based investment strategist, said that the earnings…