Industry at a crossroads

Over the past 20 years, the median fund returned 6.6 per cent per annum, which is in line with the consumer-price-index plus 3.5-per-cent target that many balanced options state in their objectives. Most funds are in the process of distributing annual member statements with a message of positive, albeit modest, performance. While results are currently … Read more

Size and scalability up, fees down

The world’s largest asset managers should be using the advantages of their size and scalability to adjust their fee structures, according to Craig Baker, global head of manager research at Towers Watson, which just released this year’s Pensions & Investments/Towers Watson World 500. “The advantage of a large manager is they could structure their fees … Read more

Rampa up at Lend Lease, infrastructure launch at Quay

Lend Lease has appointed Kylie Rampa to the position of managing director for its Australian investment management business, reporting to Tarun Gupta, chief executive officer of property in Australia. In this role Rampa will oversee the group’s $8.8-billion Australian funds management and separate mandates platform, which also includes responsibility for its retail asset management and … Read more

Rampa up at Lend Lease, infrastructure launch at Quay

Lend Lease has appointed Kylie Rampa to the position of managing director for its Australian investment management business, reporting to Tarun Gupta, chief executive officer of property in Australia. In this role Rampa will oversee the group’s $8.8-billion Australian funds management and separate mandates platform, which also includes responsibility for its retail asset management and … Read more

Great Southern sham? Court to decide

The story of failed managed-investment scheme Great Southern was a “familiar one of greed”, the Supreme Court of Victoria was told this week. The long-awaited class action brought by more than 20,000 investors in the failed forestry group began this week, the court packed with more than 30 lawyers representing investors, Great Southern directors and also … Read more

Regulators report on OTC derivatives

Australia’s central bank and other major financial regulators have recommended tightening regulation of the domestic over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia this week jointly released the Report on the Australian OTC Derivatives Market based on a survey of market participants. Specifically, … Read more

BNP beefs up insto, Citi adds to equities

BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) has announced the appointment of John Jardim to the role of senior business development manager. Jardim will be based in BNPP IP’s Melbourne office, focusing on relationships with superannuation funds, as well as government and financial institutions. His appointment follows the recent hires of Angus Carson as head of … Read more

Strategy rules at Cbus

“The strategy governs the fund completely,” says Steve Bracks, chairman of the Cbus board. “It determines the budget and sets priorities.” Those priorities include positioning the fund to be the “complete” fund that covers the entire building and construction industry, including the 45 per cent it currently doesn’t represent in whitecollar professions such as architecture. “We … Read more

Long-term investing strategies in private wealth management

Asset-liability management (ALM) denotes the adaptation of the portfolio-management process in order to handle the presence of various constraints relating to the commitments that represent the liabilities of an investor. Academic research has suggested that suitable extensions of portfolio-optimisation techniques used by institutional investors (for example, pension funds) could be usefully transposed to the context of private wealth management precisely because they have … Read more

ETP allocations set to rise

Institutional investors across the Asia-Pacific region are set to increase their allocations to exchange traded products (ETPs), according to a survey commissioned by State Street Global Advisors. Conducted in August this year by Greenwich Associates, the survey found that 40 per cent of those surveyed planned to lift their ETP allocations in coming years, with … Read more

Capital launches fund for retail and instos

Capital International, part of the Capital Group is beefing up its presence in Australia with the opening of a representative office late last year and the launch of its Emerging Markets Total Opportunities Fund for both institutional and retail investors. Paul Hennessy, a former Macquarie banker who was appointed Capital’s Australian head last year, says … Read more