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(Tim McGavin) by Greg Bright Australian super funds have had a long, but sparse, history with agricultural investments. It may be, however, that times have changed. Demographics make the new-look agricultural investments currently on offer seem particularly appealing. The old Prudential Australia, before it was bought by Colonial in 1998, was a pioneer with a…

(Pictured: Leigh Gavin) For years fund managers have spoken about having ‘partnerships’ with their super fund clients, but it is only in the past few years, first in the US and now Australia, has the idea developed its own special forms of contract between the parties. Frontier Advisors has produced an interesting paper on the growing…

(Pictured: Mamadou-Abou Sarr) Climate change is making its way up the to-do list of super funds as they expand and refine their ESG strategies, helped along by recent scientific views, unusual weather and the next Climate Change Conference in Paris, which is being seen as a milestone in the ESG investing sector. According to Mamadou-Abou Sarr,…

(Pictured: Justin Nunan) Media Super has recruited Justin Nunan, head of treasury sales at ME Bank, as its new investment manager, following the departure of Charles Wu last month. Wu has taken a senior investment strategist role at NSW State Super (STC), whose portfolios are being merged with those of NSW Treasury Corporation and NSW WorkCover…

(Pictured: Ross Youngman) Ausbil Investment Management has hired experienced fund manager Ross Youngman as head of institutional business, following the departure late last year of its long-time marketer Adam Lancaster. Youngman was co-founder, with Chris Selth, of the Five Oceans Asset Management global boutique which shut its doors last year after eight years of operations. Like…

(Pictured: Byram Johnston) MainstreamBPO, the independent fund administrator for about 350 funds, has appointed its corporate and legal advisors for a planned ASX listing later this year. The size and timing of the capital raising are not yet known. While not exactly a fintech start-up, MainstreamBPO should attract some interest from investors who have been pouring…

by Jimmy Louca, Senior Economist, QIC Low interest rates have pumped up Australian house prices, leading to concerns that not only is housing across the nation becoming less affordable, but the boom will meet its eventual bust. However, we believe, the housing cycle over the next few years is likely to play out differently from this…

(Pictured: Nadine Moore) Financial systems provider SS&C Technologies, which last December bought most of the business of DST International in Australia, has expanded its Australasian reach with the purchase of its enterprise reporting and investment portal platform by Trustee Executors of New Zealand.  The NZ firm had been a long-standing client of DST’s institutional back-office system…

(Pictured: Andrea West) An impressive array of industry and political heavyweights are to attend the third annual Chant West Super Fund Awards on May 6.  The Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, will present the Super Fund of the Year Award via video at the black-tie dinner. The awards night will be directed by MC Don Luke, the…

Frontier Advisors has suggested its clients, mainly big super funds, include hedge funds in their consideration of portfolio insurance options, widening a brief that the consulting firm started early last year. This follows a ‘normalised’ value for the Aussie dollar and continued low level of sovereign bond yields. The asset-consulting firm says in its second…

(Pictured: Peter Costello) by Penny Pryor As a shaky bipartisanship on some kind of reform to superannuation concessions takes place in Canberra, the measure that many believe has the highest chance of getting up, are the changes to the taper rate at which retired Australians can get access to some form of the part-pension. Minister for…