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(pictured: Chris Thompson)  BT Financial Group is to shift about $800 million in international alternatives assets to GMO, with the US hedge fund-of-funds manager Ramius understood to be the main loser, in a rejig of its $3.2 billion alternatives portfolios for retail investors. The move follows some significant personnel changes at BTFG, including the recent…

(pictured: Andy Sowerby) Takeovers, especially in financial services, usually fail to add value from the perspective of both the clients and shareholders of the acquiring company. Or the clients of the acquired company, for that matter. Usually it’s just the shareholders of the acquired company who do well. The important thing for the acquiring company’s shareholders…

(pictured: Ken Shaw)   After casting its net outside the securities servicing sector of the industry, including talking to fund managers, NAB Asset Servicing (NAS) has settled on one of its own kind for the new position of general manager sales. Ken Shaw, a former long-time business development manager at BNP Paribas Securities Services, who has…

(pictured: Will Kinlaw) Venture capital has not done well this year, according to the latest State Street private equity index, however the two other main categories in the private equity space – buyouts and private debt – have been in positive territory. Venture, due to its cyclical nature, remains a strong diversification mechanism, according to the…

(pictured: Maria Wilton)  Comment by Greg Bright Franklin Templeton Investments Australia has let go its two most senior institutional sales people in a cost-cutting exercise. This is becoming a phenomenon among big fund managers. Do super funds understand the ramifications of their drive to reduce manager fees? I’m not saying reducing costs for members and…

The Productivity Commission is likely to have a heavy focus on systemic dynamic efficiency in its forthcoming review – with fees and charges being a key element. Participants in the various market segments should take note of the hints in the recent draft report. The report “How to Assess the Competiveness and Efficiency of the Superannuation…

(pictured: Anthony Serhan)  Morningstar has introduced its global sustainability ratings to Australia, with an unlikely group of managers at the top of the list and a plan to roll out increased access to advisors so they can assess their own portfolios on detailed ESG factors. The initiative, which was announced last year, has been developed…

(pictured: Thomas Lee)  Smoothing the journey to retirement through various defensive strategies has generally been assumed to cost the member in terms of the end outcome. A paper by Parametric Portfolio Associates shows that this outcome, or ‘destination’, can also be enhanced in a defensive strategy. Parametric has published a paper that argues that it is…

(pictured: Stephen Jackman)  PwC Investment Consulting has thrown its support behind the trend to after-tax management of portfolios with a new report which provides some of the questions super funds should be asking of their managers and custodians. The report, ‘Ten Questions to Ask Your Investment Manager and Custodian on Tax’, says that tax is…

(pictured: Peter Monson) The rise of financial technology ‘disruptors’ is “one of the unintended consequences of post GFC regulation and monetary policy”, according to a new Nikko Asset Management paper. Authored by Singapore-based Nikko senior equity analyst, Peter Monson, the paper argues the burgeoning fintech sector has been buoyed “all-time low interest rates and intense regulatory…

(pictured: Rob Prugue) Rob Prugue, the high-profile regional chief executive of Lazard Asset Management, has embarked on a personal campaign to raise awareness for mental health issues and to stop the stigma still attached. Working with Lifeline, Prugue is personally organising a campaign to build and promote an app which could be of enormous benefit to…

(pictured: Arif Joshi) A group of heavyweight global bond managers visited Australia last week, drawn together by a Conexus conference in Melbourne. They differed on many things except one: emerging markets debt looks like coming into its own. GREG BRIGHT spoke to three of them. Of the US$18 billion or so of fund flows into emerging…