Incoming laws preventing tax losses in superannuation mergers will spur more funds to unite as they face greater compliance workloads, according to an industry peak body. The draft legislation, aiming to allow merging super funds to offset investment losses against future capital gains tax (CGT), will trigger the latent plans of many funds to join … Read more
While Health Super and First State Super boasted a “cultural and strategic fit” when the two funds first announced a merger at the end of 2010, they still had a lot of work to do to join the two plans together. Twenty months or so on from the announcement, getting members on the same page in … Read more
The government’s decision to formalise capital-gains-tax rollover relief to help super funds merge removes a key obstacle for those organisations looking to join forces with others. However, even with this change, merging two super funds is no walk in the park. Just how challenging the process can be was highlighted in late May when Equipsuper … Read more
Nick Sherry, a former senator for Tasmania who resigned at the end of June, will take up the role as chairman of FNZ with immediate effect. FNZ provides technology services to a range of local institutional clients, including AMP, UBS and National Australia Bank. The chief executive officer of FNZ’s Australasian operations, Martin Jennings, says … Read more
Australian equity investors should look beyond headline concerns about China slowing, with the country’s A and H-share valuations offering attractive opportunities, says Stuart Rae, AllianceBernstein’s Pacific Basin equities chief investment officer. Rae argues that markets have overreacted to fears about a rapid China slowdown, leaving equity valuations significantly cheaper than both their average over time … Read more
Institutional investors around the world have been lobbying for the right to have a say on pay, a right to have an input into the remuneration of the executives in the companies they invest in. In June the UK’s business secretary, Vince Cable, laid out new plans that will give shareholders three-yearly votes on executive … Read more
The asset managers who will succeed in the current low-returns environment are those that can fashion workable post-retirement solutions and have the capability to offer integrated multi-asset solutions, predicts AXA Investment Managers’ Craig Hurt. Hurt, who is the head of the global asset manager’s Australian and New Zealand operations, says that the mandates offering multi-asset-class … Read more
Industry-wide adoption of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Managed Funds Service (AMFS) could save up to $215 million a year in transaction costs, according to Rice Warner Actuaries. A Rice Warner report, Managed Funds Transaction Cost Research: Impact of ASX Managed Funds Service, concludes that the service could lead to savings of between 35 … Read more
Staff at the $4.6-billion Equipsuper could start making tactical investment bets through futures contracts by the end of the year. Equipsuper’s seven-person investment team aims to begin making investments in all asset classes by using futures based on major stock and bond market indexes by December. The contracts would enable the fund to place trades … Read more
Scenario analysis can be a useful tool in determining investment strategy, but it is not easy. It certainly involves more than good and bad perturbations around a base case. Excellent scenario analysis requires deep thinking and imagination to create a set of plausible futures. Each scenario does not have to be likely, but if it … Read more
How high is your portfolio’s exposure to potential stranded carbon assets? According to Generation Asset Management, stranded assets are those with a value that would change dramatically, either positively or negatively, under certain scenarios such as a reasonable price on carbon or water. The soon-to-be-introduced Clean Energy Plan will put a price on carbon emissions for … Read more
Growth in the volume of fixed income funds managed by BlackRock in Australia has seen the firm’s Singapore-based head of Asia-Pacific portfolio management, Michael Prljaca, join the manager’s fixed income team based in Sydney. Prljaca will report directly to BlackRock’s head of indexed and enhanced portfolio management, Craig Vardy. BlackRock currently manages about $11 billion … 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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