Opening up early access to super for housing would have a negative effect on the balances of even those members that don’t dig into their savings, with funds forced to adopt more conservative investment strategies and hold more liquid assets.
The circa $88 billion industry fund for workers in health and community services reckons that alleviating the affordable housing crisis will boost its other investments by easing the cost of living and inflation.
Martin Currie launches stewardship institute
Martin Currie has launched an inhouse institute to broaden research and the exploration of ideas around asset management stewardship. Super funds and other clients will have input into the topics studied.
The global equities manager, a subsidiary of Franklin Templeton, has about US$22 billion (A$28.5 billion) under management across various products, including a big Australian equities portfolio. However, the firm said last week (June 16) that the research by the Martin Currie Stewardship Institute would be “product agnostic”.
The firm said the institute’s work would focus on how the asset management industry could contribute to topics that were aligned to the long-term investment horizons of clients’ capital.
Topics would include human rights, modern slavery, climate change, decarbonisation, UN SDGs and diversity. The first short paper to be published under the institute’s auspices, ‘Net Zero: Managing the Wider Impact of Economic and Capital Displacement’, was published to coincide with the institute’s launch (see separate report this edition).
The institute’s formation adds to a growing body of work by the firm on ESG and other stewardship concerns, which support the long-term horizons targeted in its investment strategies, including its quarterly ‘Stewardship Matters’ and ‘Annual Stewardship’ publications.
Julian Ide, Martin Currie’s chief executive, said: “We are delighted to create a centralised Institute dedicated to Stewardship and ESG thought leadership. Martin Currie have been a leader in the space for many years, and we continue to invest significant resources in maintaining that leadership and delivering outstanding and sustainable outcomes for our clients.”
For Australian and New Zealand clients and other super funds and consultants, Kimon Kouryialas, Melbourne-based global co-head of distribution, said he hoped and expected that there would be a lot of interest in the institute’s proposed research agenda.
“We’re very keen for them to talk through what aspects of stewardship and ESG they would like us to focus on with the institute’s work. They are among the most advanced in the world at integrating ESG principles throughout their processes, and I think everyone can learn from their experiences so far. We’d certainly like to hear of their suggestions.”
David Sheasby, Martin Currie’s head of stewardship and ESG said: “We understand that our role as active managers extends beyond the ability to deliver alpha. Stewardship and ESG form the bedrock of our client proposition, and the expertise and insights from our investment floor can add significant value to our clients and we are focused on sharing our knowledge through thought-provoking content. We are motivated by a belief that this can help both protect and enhance the risk-adjusted returns on our clients’ capital.”
