UBS Global Asset Management will no longer trade Australian equities from Sydney.
Over the last two months, all execution of Australian and NZ share trades has been moved to Singapore, and the manager is currently searching for a designated head of Australasian trading to be based there. Order generation will continue to occur in Sydney, under Sam Chung. However, head of the Sydney desk, Janet Montague, has been made redundant while another senior trader, Karen Thompson, recently resigned to join former UBS GAM head of Australian equities, Paul Fiani, at his Integrity start-up. It is understood that Fiani had opposed the shifting of trading during his time leading the business, arguing that it was not in the clients’ best interests. A UBS GAM spokesperson said trading desks in Hong Kong and Tokyo had also ceded responsibilities to Singapore in recent times. UBS GAM’s global head of trading, Paul Harvey, said a more centralised trading hub, in Singapore, offered efficiency and risk mitigation benefits to the manager. UBS GAM’s new head of Australian equities, Simon Shields, said he supported the move. Fidelity Investments’ Sydney-based Australian equities team has, since inception, implemented trades through an Asian desk. However, the remote trading model remains a rarity for locally-based Australian equities businesses.
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
