A former Russell Investment Group consultant has hung a shingle as an Asian equities multimanager and appointed his first analyst.
Ian Lundy has been assessing Asia ex-Japan equities managers since 2002, and after leaving Russell in 2005 spent 18 months consulting on the region and formulating his new boutique, Forte Investment Advisers. From a researched universe of 64 managers, Forte has selected four for the Forte Asia Trust, which received its licence with the help of responsible entity FundHost and began running a small amount of seed money on December 22, 2006. The trust has since returned 6 per cent against 1.9 per cent for its benchmark, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan in AUD. Forte’s four launch managers – all long-only high-conviction shops with what Lundy calls “;significant staff ownership”; – were arrived at after meetings with 55 firms, and as such Lundy is not yet comfortable revealing their names. “;There’s a significant amount of intellectual property in just knowing who these guys are,”; he said, adding that the blend had a “;realistic target”; of 4 per cent alpha annualised. Lundy has just appointed an analyst, John Besley, and like his underlying managers will offer equity to all his future investment staff. Lundy said Asia ex-Japan was a “;natural hedge”; for investors concentrated in the mature Australian economy – the region has 49 per cent of the world’s population, 28 per cent of its GDP but to date just 4 per cent of its market capitalisation.
Since taking over the top job at the $44 billion Funds SA more than a year ago, chief executive John Piteo has ushered in an investment function overhaul and wrapped up an important stage of the fund’s five-year data transformation program. It pledges to recentre around investment performance and more efficient processes, as the “missing piece” has been found in incoming CIO Con Michalakis.
Darcy SongJanuary 10, 2025
