The days when Australia “rode on the sheep’s back” may be long gone, but agriculture remains a critical component of the economy, generating valuable export income. While overseas investors understand its importance, for most local institutions it’s still a bridge too far.
For several years, investors, from institutional to retail, couldn’t get enough of the tech stocks with all their promises of future growth. But now the market has spoken and it’s saying precisely this – valuations matter again.
Investors on the move…
Chris Davies, the chief operating officer at UniSuper, will step up to a CEO role and Ben Samild, the well-regarded investment manager at industry fund LUCRF is to join the Future Fund in a yet-to-be-specified capacity.
Davies is set to replace the retiring Martin Crowe at the $11 billion Telstra Super after a lengthy search. And, according to industry newsletter ‘Insto Report’, Samild, the head of strategy at the $2.8 billion LUCRF, has joined Future Fund’s 40-person investment team.
Crowe, who has overseen a big restructure of the Telstra Super investments and implementation systems in the past two years, including the introduction of a member-directed-investments option for members with big balances, announced his pending retirement in June.
Interestingly, UniSuper’s recently retired CEO, Terry McCredden, was Crowe’s predecessor at Telstra. He is currently doing some consulting work with QIC. UniSuper’s new CEO is Kevin O’Sullivan a former actuarial consultant at Russell Investments.
