Former division director of Macquarie Bank’s equity markets group, Cathy Kovacs, has settled into an executive position with a James Packer-owned funds manager.
Kovacs has filled a newly-created role running investor relations for Ellerston Capital, the Packer family funds manager which became available to the public in June via the listing of the Ellerston GEMS Fund. Based in Sydney’s Park Street, Kovacs is overseeing sales, marketing and client contact with Ellerston investors both retail and wholesale, the latter of which are mostly offshore institutions. Ellerston’s wholesale offerings include a global equities long/short capability and two hedge fund-of-funds, while GEMS invests in the global shares fund with a ‘special situations’ discretion of up to 15 per cent. The two ‘special situations’ identified so far, totalling 2.5 per cent of the GEMS portfolio, are a Vietnamese manufacturing business and a West Australian property design and construction business, Arccon. Kovacs was replaced at Macquarie by Jonathan Hall.
The role of IFM Investors in arranging a visit by a delegation of Australian super funds to the US last month gives a pointer to the scale of the longer-term ambitions of the global super-fund-owned asset manager, and a recent investment in the manager by the UK pension fund NEST is designed to give it even greater clout. IFM chair Cath Bowtell tells Investment Magazine the manager aims to be a partner to governments around the world as they seek capital to build critical infrastructure.
Glenda KorporaalMarch 21, 2025
