The $31 billion QBE investment portfolio is to place $100m in social impact bonds in the belief that opportunities for such investments will expand greatly in the years to come. It is part of a general move to diversify assets in the QBE portfolio, which until now has been dominated by developed world government and … Read more
The standard of governance among listed Australian companies leads the world, states the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors’ (ACSI), after it unveiled progress on checking excessive pay. ACSI’s annual survey on chief executive pay shows median termination payments at Australia’s largest listed companies have shrunk from $3.5 million in 2008 to $1.3 million in 2013. … Read more
Sunsuper is to expand on its success in partnering with distressed debt and private equity managers by seeking partnerships with listed equity managers too. The $30 billion fund has gained large returns from offering quick and often short-term finance to fund managers it has built up long-term relationships with in the private capital space and … Read more
Remote indigenous Australians are having a poor experience in getting their superannuation entitlements. Tom Garcia, chief executive of the Australian Institute Of Superannuation Trustees, calls on superannuation funds to make a difference. There was plenty of discussion around the opening up of China’s equity markets, finding value in emerging markets and whether another “Lehman” moment … Read more
Institutional investors are shrewder purchasers of absolute return managers as their ability to identify risk-premia to match their portfolios improves. This was a common theme to conversations at the 8th annual Conexus Financial Absolute Returns conference in Sydney, at which representatives of the US and European based hedge fund managers Elementum Advisors, 36 South, GAM, … Read more
Stock options are the last source of true diversification, investors were told at the Absolute Returns Conference in Sydney. In a presentation that received close scrutiny and engagement from delegates, Anthony Limbrick, portfolio manager for 36 South, told how growing consensus on diversification was having diminishing returns, in part due to the growing popularity of … Read more
The Future Fund is using hedge fund of funds as alternative solution providers rather than as an access vehicle, delegates heard at the Absolute Returns Conference in Sydney. David George, head of debt and alternatives at the Future Fund, revealed how in some instances he was using fund of funds to help with risk systems … Read more
HESTA, the super fund for health and community services, is to progressively implement a restriction on investments in thermal coal. It will not make new investments in unlisted companies that derive more than 15 per cent of revenue or net asset value from exploration, new or expanded production, or transportation of thermal coal. In addition, … Read more
Many thought Alice Springs was an odd choice for last week’s AIST ASI conference. Perhaps the rationale was not explained well, but CEO Tom Garcia felt rather than another junket, it was better the industry understood the plight of our country’s first people and to leave a decent wad of cash behind in one of … Read more
Super funds may soon have to display industry average fund performance and fees on their MySuper product dashboards. Speaking at the AIST ASI conference in Alice Springs, Alex Purvis, senior manager for superannuation at ASIC, revealed consumer testing of the proposal had proved popular and that the Treasury would now decide on whether to require … Read more
QSuper used two sessions at the AIST ASI conference to explain its shift away from peer-benchmark investing, following its move to cohort strategies earlier this year. Greg Hall, portfolio manager at QSuper, spoke of how messages of future projected adequacy of income in retirement from the fund outweighed any other information members received. Research of … Read more
An alternative set of proposals for reducing costs and boosting competition to those in the Grattan Institute Super Sting report, were presented by Ken Marshman, chair of REST Super at the AIST ASI conference in Alice Springs. In a stirring and strident presentation which avoided an outright confrontation with Jim Minifie, the author of Super … Read more
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Investment Magazine provides in-depth, monthly analysis of trends and developments for all the businesses in which superannuation funds engage‚ including asset allocation, investment manager selection, custody and fund accounting, member administration, group insurance and compliance.
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