Van Eyk’s Blueprint multimanager business has wasted no time in reacting to the departure of Suncorp Investment Management’s Australian equity team.
Van Eyk director Mark Thomas said there was “;no way”; that Suncorp IM could be retained as a Australian equities manager for the Blueprint series, following the defection of Denis Donohue and his eight colleagues last month. “;We’ve already withdrawn the mandate and equitised some of the cash, we are doing our Australian equities review into early next year and will see what comes out of that before making any decisions,”; Thomas said. The team’s new incarnation, Solaris, owned 60 per cent by staff and 40 per cent by incubator Pinnacle, will be among the new products van Eyk considers in that review but Thomas said it had no automatic claim to the ex-Suncorp funds. The AMP/Mercer multimanager vehicle, Future Directions, has a roughly $80 million Australian equities mandate with Suncorp IM, but investment director Sean Henaghan would not comment on its fate. Comment was being sought from other external clients including Queensland Local Government Super Scheme and SPEC(Q).
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said that FY24 has been a great year for alpha creation, thanks to strong returns in equities and, unusually, across multiple hedge fund strategies all at the same time. He reflected the past few years have been “a difficult time to be an asset owner and to generate positive returns for risk assets” but the Future Fund is tracking well of its long-term mandate.
Simon Hoyle and Darcy SongSeptember 4, 2024
