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NAB Asset Servicing has upped its sales effort with the appointment of long-time NAB executive Peter Hele to the new role of head of business development, Australia/New Zealand. The announcement, last week, signals an increased effort in New Zealand, especially, where BNP Paribas has a dominant position in terms of numbers of clients, and in…

Pictured: Chris Ailman UNPRI, which came under fire late last year for its own governance, has strengthened its board with the addition of Chris Ailman, the CIO of America’s second-largest pension fund, CalSTRS. Ailman said in a statement last week that CalSTRS, which has assets of about US$180 billion, had been adopting ESG (environment, social…

By Pal Sarai* I am glad that you find our business interesting and relevant enough to communicate to Australian institutional investors. However, there are a few inaccuracies in your comment piece (Investor Strategy News, December 16, 2013).  They mainly refer to our size and our business model. 1)  size:  bfinance is an international investment consultant…

Comment by Greg Bright An interesting new investment consulting model was presented in Australia last week: that of ‘bfinance’ of the UK, which has had a successful track record of running manager searches in Europe whereby the managers pay for the privilege of being involved. The client pension fund gets the work for free. Can…

Pictured: Ian Perkins Ian Perkins, a co-founder of Morse Consulting, is returning to the corporate world. He is to become the new head of sales and marketing for BNP Paribas Securities Services in the new year. Perkins will take the role to be vacated this week by Steve Tremelling, a 10-year BNP staffer, who has…

Pictured: Marshall Stephen Global systems provider FNZ has appointed Marshall Stephen as its new chief executive for Australia and New Zealand following the return to the UK of former Australasian boss Martin Jennings.  Stephen, who has been involved in developing master funds and wraps since the early 1990s, starting with the Summit master fund of…

Pictured: Fiona Reynolds Six large European pension funds, led by Denmark’s national fund, ATP, have criticized the governance of United Nations’ PRI organization, and have said they will “remain outside the organization until it again lives up to basic requirements for good corporate governance”. Fiona Reynolds, the former chief executive of AIST, who moved to…

Market movements and investor flows drove the Australian managed funds industry up $36.10 billion during the September quarter, according to Morningstar research. Total assets under management rose above the $1.0 trillion mark for the first time, settling at $1.02 trillion at September 30. Morningstar says the driving force behind much of this growth was positive…

(Pictured: David Murray) Comment by Greg Bright Widespread disquiet within the broad superannuation and funds management industry over David Murray’s appointment to chair the Inquiry into the Financial System threatens to spoil the process and question the findings before it even begins. At the moment, the disappointment is being expressed primarily through the usual grumbling mechanisms…

By Rob Prugue* When I read the piece [last week’s edition of Investor Strategy News] advising investors to “beware” of high dividends and payouts, I wanted to see if there was a ‘comment’ section underneath as I wanted to challenge such a view. (Investor Strategy News does not have ‘comment’ sections under individual reports but…

(Pictured: Olivia Engel) There not many signs that companies are starting to reinvest in capital expenditure. More worryingly, they are leveraging and raising fresh capital to, largely, maintain or even increase dividends. A report by State Street Global Advisors points out both dividend per share and the payout ratios of ASX companies have risen by almost…

(Pictured: Yasser El-Ansary) After some years of improvement, Australia’s previously abysmal record of investing in innovation, is again looming, venture capitalists fear. They are concerned that the new Government’s belt tightening may threaten the next round of funding for the Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) and the Translational Biotech Fund (TBF). The Australian Private Equity and Venture…