Intech has terminated Herschel Asset Management from its $1.3 billion Australian Active Share Trust, replacing it with its own Australian Shares High Alpha Trust.
After being downgraded by Intech’s fund analysts, Herschel’s ‘core’ vehicle was stripped of its 15 per cent weighting in the Active Share Trust, while its concentrated product lost its 30 per cent allocation in the High Alpha Trust. Herschel, a style-neutral manager based in Melbourne, has been replaced within the High Alpha Trust by Platypus Asset Management, a concentrated growth manager. The High Alpha Trust has been assigned 10 per cent of the Active Share Trust, a move which head of equities Ron Liling expected to add 20 basis points of outperformance for negligible additional risk. The rest of Herschel’s mandate within the Active Share Trust has been awarded to Wallara Asset Management, which after being downweighted by Intech in favour of Herschel last year, has now been boosted from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.
The $34 billion Brighter Super is set to shift around $10 billion of assets from passive to active management. Chief investment officer Mark Rider says the move is possible because of scale created by mergers, and the fund will be looking to its newly appointed active managers to generate performance through the cycle by taking idiosyncratic risks.
Darcy SongJanuary 21, 2025
