DDH Graham, a Brisbane-based money market operator, has packaged a range of funds from Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), including sophisticated high-alpha offerings, for the financial planner market.
DDH Graham, which has been working on the launch with QIC for about a year, is the responsible entity, administrator and issuer for the funds. The company, which has about $1.1 billion under management in its money market operations, has an agency agreement with Bank of Queensland (BoQ). It has launched five funds managed by QIC and one cash fund managed by BoQ. QIC manages about $50 billion, mostly through multi-managers but increasingly with its in-house team handling new and more esoteric strategies such as swaps. The manager’s main support base remains with its Queensland public sector funds, however it has been increasing its marketing efforts in the industry and geographically in recent years. Its first parlay into the retail market was through the outsourcing of the Challenger master fund in 2004. The DDH Graham funds are: an Australian equity broad market fund, an Australian small-caps fund, an Australian fixed interest fund, the cash fund, a high alpha global fixed interest fund and a global macro fund. Tony Keating, the fund director at DDH Graham, said the launch represented a major push for his firm, which would be putting a lot of resources into promoting the funds to planners. The two high-alpha funds – the global fixed interest and global macro – had already attracted ‘interesting feedback’ from planners, he said, who would probably advise clients to use them as tilts or overlays within a portfolio. Such products are starting to gain momentum in the institutional market because of new approaches to asset allocation, but are rarely offered to planners. When they are, they are often packaged with a capital guarantee, which effectively reduces the volatility while also restraining the upside. Keating said the DDH Graham funds had standard dial-up commissions, whereby planners made the choice in consultation with clients. He was hopeful that the funds would soon be available on the Navigator platform and was negotiating with BT Financial for access to its wrap.
The brunt of losses from the LA wildfires are expected to be borne by primary insurers and high-risk reinsurance programs, but super funds are nevertheless closely monitoring the possible impact of the fires on catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities exposures.
Simon HoyleJanuary 17, 2025
