The pain of losing most of his paper fortune has been eased somewhat for Bravura Solutions CEO Iain Dunstan, with a watershed UK wrap administration win and an Australian environment where “;every single funds manager is reviewing their systems”;.
Dunstan said the deal by which BPO provider Scottish Friendly will use Bravura’s wrap solution to be administrator and unit registrar for the Norwich Union Lifetime wrap would be worth $10 million over the initial licence period. The deal assists Bravura’s wrap admin presence, begun by the development of a platform for the Nucleus group of independent planners, in a market tipped to have nearly $400 billion under administration in the UK by the end of this year. The foothold into Lifetime is a bright spot in a bad year for Dunstan, who along with fellow Bravura founder Simon Woodfull lost control of most of his shares following the collapse of margin lender Lift Capital. “;With the way the market’s been treating tech stocks we would have lost a fair bit on paper anyway,”; Dunstan said. “;You’ve just got to get back to focussing on business.”; On that score, Dunstan is confident of finding opportunities where “;after 10 years of neglect during the bull market”;, every funds manager was testing systems providers.
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
