One of Mercer Investment Consulting’s most senior Melbourne-based asset consultants, Tony Arnold, has prompted reviews by resigning and will join a competitor this week.
Arnold will start at Watson Wyatt on Valentines Day, nearly a year after Martin Goss, Mercer IC’s former Melbourne chief, made the same move. His title will be senior investment consultant, and a Watson Wyatt spokesperson said he would deliver “;thought leadership and specific client consulting advice in the areas of manager research and fixed interest”;. The chief investment officer of the $2.2 billion TWU Super, Andrew Killen, said the fund – a Mercer IC client which had been directly advised by Arnold – would formally review its asset consulting arrangements in light of his resignation. An investment committee next week was due to decide whether the review would be run by Rice Warner Actuaries or Chant West Financial Services, Killen said. Arnold had also represented Mercer IC on the investment committee of the $2.7 billion Catholic Super Fund. Chief executive of Catholic SF, Frank Pegan, said the fund would “;wait and see”; how it worked with Arnold’s replacement on the committee, Andrew Harrex, before undertaking any formal review. The head of Mercer IC, Simon Eagleton, said a search was underway to replace Arnold. However he said many of Arnold’s client responsibilities would be reassigned within Mercer IC’s 80-strong team throughout Australasia. The Watson Wyatt spokesperson said Arnold was one of five investment professionals added to the consultant’s global team in the past month.
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
